FULLERTON, Calif. - Cal State Fullerton women's basketball lost a tough battle against UC Santa Barbara 74-58 at Titan Gym Monday night.
Fullerton started the game strong with a 6-0 lead over UC Santa Barbara. An impressive defensive effort from the Titans who crowded the basket and grabbed rebounds silenced the Gauchos offense for the first four minutes of play.
The Fujika Nimmo and Una Jovanovic one-two punch dominated the first quarter. The two guards put up six points each in the first quarter.
Nimmo led the Titan offense with 14 points on 6-of-19 shooting and six assists.
Fuji's got hops ��#TusksUp | @fujika_n pic.twitter.com/LYia7cLGo0
— Titans Women's Basketball (@FullertonWBB) February 21, 2023
Jovanovic was behind with 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting and added three assists to her stat line.
Ashlee Lewis had another successful outing on the offensive and defensive front for the Titans. Lewis scored 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting, and went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
Lewis led the team with seven rebounds, six of which were defensive.
Nancy Panagiotopoulou-Andritsopoulou came off the bench in the second quarter and continued this aggressive defensive effort. She grabbed two rebounds and closed Fullerton's deficit with a three-point buzzer beater to set the Titans behind 33-27 at the break.
Halftime BUZZER BEATER ��#TusksUp | @NancyPan21 pic.twitter.com/nma4gorMVg
— Titans Women's Basketball (@FullertonWBB) February 21, 2023
The Titans returned from halftime with three-pointers fresh in their mind. Gabi Vidmar, who is fourth in Big West, averaging 1.7 three-pointers a game, sank two shots from beyond the arc in under a minute.
Would you believe us if we said Gabi sank another 3-pointer right before this? #TusksUp | @gabvidmar pic.twitter.com/ldKWeKzNSd
— Titans Women's Basketball (@FullertonWBB) February 21, 2023
A breakaway from Jovanovic in the third quarter put the Titans ahead 46-45, but it did not last long. UCSB snatched the lead 47-46 with a jump shot, but found themselves tied at 47 after a made free-throw by Jovanovic.
Una with a breakaway! #TusksUp pic.twitter.com/oEYyyCxuqM
— Titans Women's Basketball (@FullertonWBB) February 21, 2023
The Titans let the Gauchos run away with the lead in the latter half of the fourth quarter, increasing their losing streak to two-games.
The Titans will return to action on the road against UC Davis on Thursday at 6 p.m.
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
Titans fans can now watch every home event exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Titan Stadium. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans) Instagram (@FullertonTitans) and Snapchat (FullertonTitans). In addition, the men's basketball team has established its own Twitter (@FullertonWBB) and Instagram accounts (@FullertonWBB).