SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team dropped the second game of its two-game central coast road trip on Saturday afternoon, 48-39, to UC Santa Barbara at The Thunderdome behind 10 points from Clair Watkins and eight assists from Onome Jemerigbe.
The catalyst for the Gaucho offense all afternoon was the senior Watkins who was playing in her last game at The Thunderdome on Saturday. She was one rebound shy of a double double in only 24 minutes on the floor. She shot an efficient 5-of-8 from the field and a big reason for that success was Jemerigbe who was finding open Gauchos all game long for easy buckets.
The Titans ran into a spirited UCSB team on senior day as the winless Gaucho's jumped out to an early 8-1 lead through the first six minutes of the game. Strong defense mixed with Titan turnovers led to Fullerton's early offensive struggles in the opening minutes as the Titans were held scoreless through the first media timeout.
For the second game in a row the Titans shot under 20 percent from the field and from behind the three-point line through the first 20 minutes of the game. Senior Chante Miles led the Titans on the offensive end with 7 points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 from deep. Miles was one of four Titans to make a field goal in the opening frame as Fullerton shot 4-of-22 (18 percent) and 2-of-11 (18 percent) from behind the arc.
With 3:36 left in the half, CSF was staring down its largest deficit of the game after a jump shot by Melissa Maragnes fell to give the Gauchos a 21-11 lead. Seniors Miles, Tailer Butler and Kathleen Iwuoha turned up the intensity and spurred a late 7-0 Titan run to end the first frame. The Gauchos' halftime lead shrunk to just three points at the sound of the horn as Fullerton went into the break trailing UCSB 21-18.
One of only two seniors on the Gaucho roster, Watkins led UCSB on both sides of the ball in the first half. She poured in a team-high 6 points (3-of-5 FG) while pulling down four rebounds and came up with one block on the defensive end. UC Santa Barbara shot 38 percent (10-26) from the field in the first half but could not make a three-point shot fall in its five attempts.
Looking to erase the 10-4 advantage on points in the paint the Gauchos posted through the first 20 minutes of play, the Titans pounded the ball inside to Iwuoha and Daeja Smith start the final frame and extended their 7-0 run to 10-0 as they tied the game 21-21 with 17:00 left to play in the game.
With 14:40 left to play in the game, Miles drained her second three-pointer of the game to hand the Titans their first lead of the game at 26-23. Until the trey fell through the hoop UCSB never trailed in the game and led for 21 minutes through the first 28 minutes of play.
The last 10 minutes of the game the Titan offense returned to first half form and went ice cold, only managing nine points the rest of the way. Gaucho sophomore point guard Jemerigbe took over the last half of the second frame, racking up 7 assists to add to her total from the first half to lead the team with eight assists on the afternoon.
Turnovers hurt the Titans all game long on Saturday afternoon, giving the ball away 22 times that directly lead to 22 Gaucho points. Fullerton forced 14 Gaucho turnovers but could only turn those opportunities into nine points.
The Titans were led on the scoreboard by Miles who poured in 12 points while adding three assists in her 40 minutes on the floor. Iwuoha turned in her seventh double double of the season with an 11-point, 15-rebound performance, and Samantha Logan came off the bench to help the Titans on the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out three assists.
The Gauchos (1-24, 1-11) earned their first win of the season and first win in Big West Conference action on senior night. UCSB shot 42 percent (21-of-49) from the field and managed only one three-pointer in 11 attempts (9 percent.)
The Titans drop to 10-15 overall and 4-8 in Big West Conference play after shooting only 22 percent (11-50) from the field and 19 percent (5-of-26) from deep.
The Titans return to Titan Gym for a three-game home stand next week to take on CSUN on Thursday at 7:00 p.m., CSF will then tip off against rival Long Beach State on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Notes: The Titans fall to 24-49 all-time against UC Santa Barbara and fall to 206-253 against Big West Conference opponents…Chante Miles scored in double figures for the 23rd-straight game, extending her career-high streak that was set last year…Kat Iwuoha posted her team-best seventh double double on the year and extended her own streak of scoring in double figures to eight-straight games…Iwuoha also came down with a career-high in rebounds at The Thunderdome, surpassing her previous high of 14 last accomplished on Feb. 5, 2015 at UC Riverside...Chante Miles now has 1,351 points in her Titan career and trails Charlee Underwood (1,382 points) by 32 points for ninth place on the Fullerton all-time scoring list.
