February 20, 2010
Box Score
SEASIDE, Calif. – The Cal State Monterey Bay women's basketball won its biggest game in program history with a 68-57 victory over No. 11 UC San Diego on Saturday night at the Otter Sports Center.
"This is without a doubt the biggest win in program history," said head coach #Renee Jimenez#. "UC San Diego is not only the best team in the conference but one of the top 10 teams in the country."
Four Otters achieved double digits with senior #Veronica Williams# leading the charge with 15 points. Senior #Lindsay Trout# hit a career-high 14 points and nine rebounds. Junior #Michelle Santizo# also knocked down 14 points while classmate #LaShawn Johnson# added 10 points. Senior #Helen Suarez# dished out nine assists. Junior #Julie Heurung# grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds and set a new school individual record of five blocked shots in a single game. Led by Heurung, the squad set a CSUMB team record of eight blocked shots for the night.
"They never went away and fought us till the very end," Jimenez said. "I couldn't be more proud of this team for locking in at the end of the game, hitting huge shots and getting big stops down the stretch."
In their final home game of the regular season, the CSUMB seniors got things started off strong by scoring eleven of the Otters first 15 points with
Lindsay Trout leading the way with five.
The first half had both teams trading leads until the Otters came out on top at the end with a 32-31 lead at the break.
CSUMB took a 44-37 lead at 14:46 on a 3-pointer by Trout, but the Tritons rallied back with a 10-1 run capped by UCSD's Tiffany Hunter's jumper just shy of eight minutes remaining.
Both teams battled for the next several minutes until Santizo sank a pair of free throws to spark an eight point run topped by Johnson's last second shot clock layup to give the Otters a 58-53 victory.
After a Triton free throw, Williams swished a triple with 45 seconds on the clock to push the Otters advantage to 61-54. UCSD's Chelsea Carlisle put up a layup following a timeout to cut the lead to five, but Heurung's put-back on a missed free throw made it 63-56.
CSUMB made 5-of-6 from the charity stripe in the final 28 seconds to clinch the historic victory.
CSUMB shot 40 percent (25-62) for the game, while UCSD finished at just 36 percent (20-56) from the field. The Otters held a 43-32 advantage on the glass and outscored the Tritons 24-16 in the paint.
The Tritons were led by Tiffany Hunter with 18 points and nine rebounds.
The Otters clinched their first berth to the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) tournament yesterday with 53-43 victory over Cal State East Bay. CSUMB is fifth in the CCAA standing with two games remaining of the regular season. The Otters are fighting to finish in one of the top four spots so they can host the first round of the tournament on Tuesday, March 2.
CSUMB travels to Cal Poly Pomona on Thursday, Feb. 25 before taking on Cal State San Bernardino the next day.
"We've been saying it all year, on any given night we can compete and beat the best teams in the country. Now we're finally starting to believe it," Jimenez said.
