SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Leora Juster, the leading scorer in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, scored 22 points Wednesday night and teammate Hillary Hansen added 20 as UC San Diego won its fifth game in a row, 65-59, over Cal State San Bernardino in Coussoulis Arena.
The Tritons improved to 9-2 on the season and 4-1 in the CCAA while the Coyotes are now 7-5 and 1-4 in the conference.
Down by 11 points with 4:45 to play, the Coyotes rallied to get within four points at 63-59 with 1:06 left in the game on a three-pointer by Desirae Martinez who finished with 12 points.
After a missed Tritons free throw, the Coyotes committed a turnover with 42 seconds left. UCSD missed another free throw with 28 seconds left and the Coyotes had the ball but Alexis Mezzetta stole the ball and then scored on a layup with 22 seconds left to ice the game.
Senior guard Tamara Thomas led the Coyotes with 14 points and five assists. Junior Mariqueta Startling had a team-high 10 rebounds, sharing high game honors with Briana Hinga of UCSD who also had 10 boards. Michelle Osier had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Tritons.
UCSD took a 29-28 lead to the locker room at halftime. The Coyotes took a 6-2 lead to start the game but the Tritons went ahead 7-6 on a jumper by Hansen and never trailed again. UCSD was up 20-13 with 9:09 left in the half but the Coyotes ran off six straight points to trail 20-19 on a layup by Starling with 6:56 to intermission.
The Tritons shot 46 percent for the game (26 of 56) and made 10 of 12 free throws (83 percent) and outrebounded the Coyotes 35-32. The two teams combined for 34 turnovers, 19 by CSUSB. The Coyotes shot 38 percent for game (19 of 50) and made 15 of 21 free throws.
However, CSUSB was just six of 18 from three-point range and three of those came from sophomore Desiree Ekno who had nine points for the second straight game.
Junior Christina Day, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, who missed last weekend's games with an infected blister on her foot, played 23 minutes coming off the bench and settled for eight points and five rebounds.
The Coyotes travel to Cal State Monterey Bay for a 5:30 p.m. game on Friday while UCSD will try to keep its streak going against the same Otters on Saturday night.
