SAN MARCOS, Calif. -- In the second half of their SoCal road trip, the Cal State Monterey Bay women's basketball team walked into Cal State San Marcos for the first time as conference foes. While the Otters got off to a quick start, a quiet second half allowed the host Cougars to come back and hand CSUMB the tough loss on Saturday night.

After seven different players scored in the first quarter, CSUMB held a 10–point lead after the opening 10 minutes of the game, 15-5. However, the double-digit lead would not hold. The Cougars outscored the Otters 27-14 in the second quarter as Ashley Jenkins completed the comeback with a three–pointer with 27 seconds left in the half. While a Brianna Tucker (San Jose, Calif. / Clovis North HS) layup tied the game at 29-29, a Cougar trey gave the home team a 32–29 lead at the half.

The second half featured a back–and–forth contest. The Otters regained the lead after a Stephanie Sack (Petaluma, Calif. / Casa Grande HS) three-pointer at 35-34. CSUMB had the lead two other times en route to a 45-44 lead at the end of the third. The final 10 minutes began with a free throw for San Marcos giving the Cougars a 46-45 edge. From then on it was all Cal State San Marcos as the hosts out scored the Otters 17-7 in the final 10 minutes sending CSUMB home with a 52-61 defeat.

Despite the losing effort, CSUMB put 10 players in the scoring column of the stat sheet including a team leading 11 points from McKenna Hill (Ventura, Calif. / Saint Bonaventure HS) and 10 from freshman Brianna Tucker (San Jose, Calif. / Clovis North HS) in her first career start. Speaking of career nights, second–year player Courtney Keaton (Los Angeles, Calif. / Bishop Montgomery HS) pulled down a career–high 11 rebounds. The Cougars had three scorers in double-figures highlighted by Savannah Camps 27 points.

Monterey Bay falls to 6-8, 2-5 CCAA and will return home for games against Cal State San Bernardino and UC San Diego on Jan. 15 and 16, respectively.