Women's Basketball | January 09, 2018

FULL NOTEBOOK (PDF)

SEASIDE, Calif.—The Cal State Monterey Bay women's basketball team takes on the role of giant killer this week when it welcomes No. 14 UC San Diego Thursday (Jan. 11) and former mentor Renee Jimenez and her Cal State San Marcos Cougars Saturday (Jan. 13) to close a 3–game homestand.

The Otters will be looking for revenge against UCSD, which handed the a 76–58 setback on Dec. 8. Saturday will be the only meeting of the season between the Otters and the Cougars.

Fans who can't make it to The Kelp Bed for this week's games can follow all of the action live. Ch. 73 has the local TV broadcast while OtterAthletics.com will stream the video and live stats. Kirsten Fairchild will call Thursday's game and Kevin Gilmore will call has the mike on Saturday.

Links for the live streams and stats are available a GameDay, the official game program of Otter basketball. 
 

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TRITON 3–DOT NOTES (13–2, 9–0 CCAA): The Tritons begin the week riding a 9–game winning streak that dates back to Nov. 30…survived a 64–63 scare against Humboldt State in RIMAC Arena last weekend but bounced back to blow out Chico state 84–48…UCSD leads the CCAA in scoring (71.3 ppg) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.27)…in fact, UCSD is the only CCAA team with a positive ratio…Univ. of Hawaii transfer Dalayna Sampton (Sr./F), the 2017 CCAA Newcomer of the Year, leads UCSD in scoring at 14.7 ppg and ranks No. 3 in the CCAA in rebounding (10.3 rpg).

WHEN LAST WE MET: UCSD slowly pulled away at the end of each of the four quarters of a 76–58 Triton win in RIMAC Arena on Dec. 8. Courtney Keaton just missed out on a double–double by leading the Otters with 12 points and nine rebounds. Kayla Sato scored 20 points to lead all scorers for UCSD.

WHEN LAST WE PLAYED: Big games from Aubri Smith and Courtney Keaton helped Cal State Monterey Bay catch fire to beat visiting Stanislaus State 67–56 Thursday night in The Kelp Bed. Smith led all scorers with 26 points while Keaton scored a career–high 17 points and added 14 rebounds for her fifth double–double of the season.

THE GAME WAS STATISTICALLY OVER WHEN… Aubri Smith made the first of two free throws to give the Otters a 66–56 lead with 47 seconds left.

THIS DATE IN OTTER HISTORY: The Otters will be looking for their first–ever Jan. 11 victory when they host UC San Diego Thursday night. CSUMB is 0–6 on the date. The last time the Otters played on Jan. 11, they couldn't get the game–winner to fall as time expired in a 40–38 loss at UCSD on Jan. 11, 2014.

TAKE THEM, THEY'RE FREE… The Otters made 32 free throws in last week's win over Stanislaus, the third most free throws for a game in program history. The Otter record is 37 against the University of Mary on Nov. 15, 2008. In case you're wondering, CSUMB's 37 free–throw attempts Thursday night didn't crack the all–time Top 10.

DOUBLE–DOUBLE TROUBLE… Courtney Keaton posted her fifth double–double of the season with 17 points and 14 rebounds in the win over Stanislaus. Those five are a career high for Keaton and the most by an Otter since Brittani Jefferson had eight over the 2012–13 season.

AN ARCTIC BLAST: CSUMB recent cold spell has been a bitter one. The Otters have shot less than 30 percent from the floor in four of their last eight games. To put that in perspective, the Otters have never shot less than 30 percent in a game more than five times in an entire season since moving to the NCAA level in 2004.

OTTERS AMONG THE CCAA LEADERS: Aubri Smith's 14.7 ppg ranks her No. 6 on the CCAA scoring chart as we begin the final dozen games of the 2017–18 season. Other Otters amongst the leaders include: REBOUNDING: No. 7 Courtney Keaton (9.1 rpg); ASSISTS: No. 11 Aubri Smith (3.1 apg); STEALS: No. 7 Aubri Smith (1.9 spg), No. 10 Courtney Keaton (1.7 spg); BLOCKS: No. 13 Courtney Keaton (0.8 bpg).

WHY PLAY 40 MINUTES? The final five minutes have been all but irrelevant. CSUMB is 11–0 when leading after 35 and 0–30 when trailing after 35 dating back to the 2015–16 season.

THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING: With apologies to Douglas Adams, the answer to everything isn't 42, it's 70. With the Nov. 17 71–70 win at Cal State L.A., CSUMB is now 40–5 when scoring 70 or more points since the 2008–09 season. Up that number to 80 points and the numbers get even more impressive. The Otters have won 15 consecutive games when scoring at least 80 points dating back to the 2005–06 season.