LOS ANGELES — The Cal State Monterey Bay women's basketball team pulled off the biggest comeback of the Kerri Nakamoto era and one of the biggest in school history by rallying from 18 points down to upend Cal State L.A. 64-60 Saturday night in The Eagles Nest.

The Otters won for the third time in four games, the first time they've done that since 2013. That they did it on the road against a team that beat them in The Kelp Bed last month is one more sign of the maturation process of the young CSUMB squad.

"The girls kept fighting, never gave up and came up with some big plays down the stretch," said Nakamoto after the win. "I was really happy with how we finished the game. We did not execute defensively at the start of the game, but made some adjustments in the second half and were able to contest shots more effectively."

McKenna Hill (Ventura/St. Bonaventure HS) continued her strong run of play by scoring a game-high 21 points. Senior guard Jenna Bandy (Thousand Oaks HS) added 19. Jazmine Johnson (Garden Grove/Santa Ana College) chipped in a game-high 12 rebounds.

CSUMB never led for the first 27 minutes as L.A. built its lead to as many as 18 at 36-18 late in the first half. That's when the Otters began chipping away.

A Hill jumper to close the first half pulled the Otters back to within 42-30. A Bandy jumper got them to within two at 42-40 six and a half minutes after the restart. But it was back-to-back Bandy treys that got the Otters over the hump, putting them on top for the first time at 48-45 with 12:04 remaining.

The teams traded the lead six times down the stretch until a Bandy traditional 3-point play gave the Otters a 60-58 lead with 1:35 left. The Golden Eagles had two chances to tie or take the lead in the final minute before Hill and Johnson each made a pair of free throws in the final 16 seconds to ice the game.

Hill finished the game 9-for-9 from the line,leading the Otters to a 17-of-18 performance from the stripe. That tied the CSUMB record for team free-throw shooting with more than 10 attempts.