FULLERTON, Calif. – The Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team defeated UC Riverside, 58-49, to open Big West Conference play on Thursday night at Titan Gym behind a game-high 18 points from Chante Miles and a career-high 17 rebounds from Samantha Logan.
Fullerton did not waste any time pulling ahead of its first conference opponent of the year, starting the game on a 15-5 run. Senior Tailer Butler was the catalyst in the early going for the Titans, pouring in eight points on 3-of-5 from the field which included sinking 2-of-4 from deep during the opening seven minutes of the game.
The Highlanders (9-6) could not figure out the intense Titan defense in the first half, shooting 23 percent from the field (8-of-34) and making 1-of-11 three-point attempts. After Big West Scoring leader Brittany Crain opened the scoring for UCR with a three-pointer on its first shot attempt, the team went cold. UC Riverside shot 0-of-10 from deep the rest of the half as the Titans extended their lead until the halftime score became 32-19.
Miles led all scorers at the end of the first 20 minutes with 13 points (4-of-11) while contributing two assists and five rebounds. Logan was the benefactor of UCR's inability to make shots all night as she dominated the boards, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out three assists in the first half alone.
"We talked about our advantage on the boards, about being aggressive to pursue the ball offensively and defensively," head coach Daron Park said. "We challenged our team to really pick it up especially in the second half and Sami (Logan) in particular was amazing. She's a ball-hawk and tonight she really just made sure that wherever that ball was, she was going after it to try and make a play."
Fullerton came out in the second half and pounded the ball into the paint to Kathleen Iwuoha. The senior took advantage of the opportunity, scoring the first-four points of the half for the Titans. Fullerton outscored the Highlanders in the paint 18-10 in the final 20 minutes, paving the way for Iwuoha to earn her team-leading, fourth double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) of the year.
UC Riverside managed to make the game interesting in the final five minutes, putting together a 10-2 run to close the gap to within single digits, 50-41, with 4:02 left to play. But the Titans responded to the UCR run, sinking their last four free throws to close it out.
Three Titan scorers finished in double figures on the night, Miles (18 points), Iwuoha (12 points) and Butler (12 points) all led the way for CSF on the scoreboard. The Highlanders finished with two as Michelle Curry scored 12 points to join Crain (18 points) in double figures.
Crain scored the last nine points for the Highlanders as the game came to a close, tying her with Miles for the game-high in points with 18. The top two scorers in the Big West did not disappoint at Titan Gym on Thursday, each leading their team in scoring at game's end.
"We're really excited to open conference play 1-0," Park said. "We to beat a really good UC Riverside team and defended our home floor. "Obviously we want to finish the game better, but that is a credit to them, they were a couple players down and they just kept battling. Proud of our kids effort, we'll enjoy this and move forward tomorrow to make the next step to 2-0."
The next time the Titans take the floor will be Thursday at 7:00 p.m. against UC Irvine at Bren Events Center to continue Big West Conference action.
Notes: Fullerton's all-time record against UC Riverside improves to 23-23…CSF's all-time record in conference openers (dating back to 1985) is 14-16…With the win against UCR, the Titans move their current winning streak to a season-high three games…Fullerton improves it's all-time record against UCR in Big West Conference opening games to 2-0…With 18 points tonight, Chante Miles passes Tamara Quinn (1,109) for 14th place on Fullerton's all-time scoring list, Miles now has 1,119 points in her Titan career…The Titans all-time record in conference openers at Titan Gym improves to 8-6…CSF extends it's current winning streak against UCR to three games…Fullerton's all-time record against Big West opponents moves to 203-245…UCR's Brittany Crain and CSF's Chante Miles each scored 18 points tonight, which means Crain will still retain the scoring lead in the Big West after the head-to-head matchup.
