DAVIS, Calif. – The Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team's four-game winning streak was snapped by UC Davis on Saturday afternoon at The Pavilion, 64-59, behind 34 points from the Aggie bench that included Dani Nafekh's team-high 17 points.
The Titans (8-8, 2-1) and the Aggies spent the entire game hitting big shots at the most important moments, until the final minutes of the game when the Titans could not find an answer to the Aggie defense. UC Davis earned the win on the back of a 9-0 run in the last five minutes as Fullerton could only manage to make one out of its last 11 shots from the field.
"Obviously disappointed in the outcome today, but really proud of the effort of this team," said head coach Daron Park. "This was a hard fought game and we did a great job executing defensively. We had four great looks down the stretch and couldn't get the ball to find the bottom of the net. We will regroup and learn from this, but overall we are proud of the split on the road and excited to get home to get ready to defend Titan Gym next week."
Fullerton did an outstanding job limiting UC Davis' big name player, Sydnee Fipps. The third-leading scorer in the Big West this season was held to just two points on 1-of-4 shooting from the field in the first half. But the Aggies freshman duo of Nafekh and Rachel Nagel stepped up to apply the pressure against the Titan defense in the absence of Fipps' usual offensive output. The two accounted for 21 of the 36 total Aggie points, as Nafekh took a game-high 12 points (5-of-8) into halftime. Nagel caught fire in the final minutes of the half and ended the first 20 minutes shooting 3-of-4 from deep to account for her nine points at the break.
A slow start to the game for the Titan offense didn't stop CSF's Chante Miles, as she turned it on late and took a team-leading 11 points into the half. Hailey King, who received her second-straight start in place of the injured Kathleen Iwuoha, scored seven points and pulled down three rebounds. The Aggies entered their locker room at halftime leading the Titans 36-33.
UC Davis (8-8, 3-1) and Fullerton picked up right where they left off at the start of the second half, with each team trading baskets and continuing to shoot the ball well from three-point territory. The Aggies opened the scoring in the final half with a three-pointer from Fipps, but the Titans answered back with five of their six first field goals out of the break being of the three-point variety. Three-straight treys from Tailer Butler, sandwiched between two from Miles gave the Titans the lead at 47-45 with 14:09 left to play.
Entering the last nine minutes of the game, the Titans looked to be pulling away as another Butler three-pointer dropped to give Fullerton its largest lead of the game at 56-48. But the game had one last momentum swing as four-straight points from Alyson Doherty and a Nafekh three-pointer cut the Aggie deficit to one, 56-55, with 7:20 left in the game.
UC Davis' Nagel gave the Aggies the last points they would need when her jump shot fell through the net to give them a 60-59 lead with 4:17 left to play. A Doherty jumper gave the Aggies some breathing room with a minute left in the game, and senior Kelsey Harris sunk her two free-throws in the dying seconds to put the game out of reach.
The Titans were led by Miles who scored 23 points on 8-of-19 from the field, she also added four rebounds and five assists in her eighth, 40-minute performance of the year. Butler poured in a season-high 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field which included 5-of-12 from behind the arc. The senior from Los Angeles, Calif. also went the entire 40 minutes for the first time this year.
The Aggies were led by the freshman Nafekh who scored 17 points on 7-of-12 from the field in 28 minutes off the bench. Nagel and Doherty joined Nafekh in double figures Saturday afternoon with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Titans will return to Titan Gym for two-straight home games this week as they take on Cal Poly at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday and UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
Notes: The Titans all-time record against UC Davis drops to 10-11…Kathleen Iwuoha missed her second-consecutive game with an injury…Senior Tailer Butler made a season-high five three-pointers in the game…Fullerton's record at The Pavilion moves to 7-4 and 204-246 all-time in Big West Conference play…This is the first Big West Conference loss of the season for Cal State Fullerton…Chante Miles extended her streak of scoring in double-figures to 14-straight games with her 23 point performance against UC Davis…Miles now has 1,153 points in her Titan career, 10 points shy of Cheryl Peterson (1,163 points) for 13th place all-time in the Titan record book.