Box Score (PDF)
DENVER, Colo. – The Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team won its second-straight game Wednesday night, powering past Denver, 78-61, at Magness Arena behind a double-double from Kathleen Iwuoha and a game-high 28 points from Chante Miles.
The Titans received another huge night from the senior duo of Miles and Iwuoha who have been doing it all for the Titans lately. Miles, who is on a five-game streak of scoring in double figures, has not played less than 35 minutes in a game since Nov. 18 at San Diego. Iwuoha has also been a catalyst for the Titan offense since her injection into the starting lineup, as she posted her second double-double of the season, scoring 24 points and pulling down 12 rebounds, Wednesday night.
"Chante and Kat were big again tonight," head coach Daron Park said. "They are seniors who know how hard you have to work to win on the road. It's nice to look out on the floor and know they are wearing the blue and orange."
It was another precarious start for the Titans as the Pioneers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead with 17:48 left in the first half. Tailer Butler, making the most of her second start of the season for Fullerton, put a stop to that early Denver run with a three-point shot that dropped in, tallying three of her 12 points on the night.
Over the next 16 minutes of the first half, poor-shooting from both sides led to prolonged scoring droughts as neither team was able to top 30 percent shooting at the half. The Titans held the slim advantage, shooting 29.6 percent compared to the Pioneers 28.1 percent, but it was Denver taking the lead into halftime with the score 29-24.
As they have all season long the Titans came out in the second half ready to score, erasing Denver's halftime lead with a 10-0 run that turned the game around and handed Fullerton the lead 41-35 with 13:50 to play. The Titans never lost that advantage, shooting 61 percent from the field the rest of the way.
The difference in the second half of the game was the three-point shooting of the Titans. Denver could only connect on 1-of-11 three-point attempts in the final half while the Titans shot 58 percent (7-of-12) from behind the three-point line. Samantha Logan and Butler played a big part in that, both shooting 3-of-4 from behind the arc, with Miles connecting on a team-high five three-pointers in 10 attempts.
"Obviously I'm really proud of our effort and execution in the second half," Park said. "We were kind of sleep walking through the first half so it was nice to see us wake up and compete in the second 20 minutes."
Denver had three student-athletes in double figures as Morgan Van Riper-Rose and Paige Bradley both poured in a team-high 14 points and Alecia Espinoza contributed 12 points of her own. Espinoza also led the way for the Pioneers on the glass, grabbing nine rebounds in the game.
Fullerton will continue its road trip on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. to take on South Dakota at Dakota Dome.
Notes: The Titans all-time series record against Denver improves to 2-0…This was the first meeting for the two schools at Magness Arena in Denver, Colo…Fullerton improves its all-time series lead against the Summit Leauge to 4-2…The 54 points the Titans scored in the second half are the most points scored by Fullerton in any half played this season...Tailer Butler tied a season-high in scoring on Wednesday, dropping 12 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field, and 3-of-6 from the three-point line…The starting lineup of Miles, Logan, Butler, Iwuoha, and Daeja Smith is now 2-0 on the season…Miles posted her sixth game scoring in double figures on Wednesday, leading the Titans in that category…Iwuoha leads Fullerton in double-doubles this season (2), after earning four last season as a junior…The Titans have yet to win a game at Titan Gym this season (0-2), but with the win Wednesday, improve to 3-1 in road contests.
