FAIRBANKS, Alaska ? The UC San Diego women's basketball
team made it 2-for-2 at the Mt. McKinley Bank North Invitational,
cruising to a 73-60 triumph over Hawaii-Pacific on Friday afternoon.
The Tritons used another strong opening half to build a double-digit
lead and went on to score a season-high 73 points in their third
straight victory.
UCSD improves to 4-1 on the season, while Hawaii-Pacific falls to 1-2.
Michelle Osier was outstanding for the Tritons once again, finishing
with 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting to lead all scorers. The senior
forward also hauled in eight rebounds. The native of Placerville,
Calif. has now scored 20 or more points in three of UCSD's five games
to start the season.
Annette Ilg had another strong performance as well, tallying 16 points,
five rebounds, and three steals, while
Alexis Gaskin finished with 11
points and seven boards.
UCSD came out of the gates firing for the second day in a row and took
a 15-7 lead following a pair of free-throws from
Leilani Martin at the
14:26 mark of the first half. The Tritons increased their lead to 13
points (25-12) with 7:17 to play in the period and took a 39-29 lead
into the locker room at the break.
Head coach
Charity Elliott's squad shot 44% (14-32) in the first half,
while limiting the Sea Warriors to just 38% shooting, 11-29.
Hawaii-Pacific would come back to tie the game at 48-48 with 10:47
remaining, but Gaskin hit a jumper and
Mollie McIntyre knocked down a
long three to push the UCSD advantage back to five.
Mackenna Karasawa's layup brought the Sea Warriors to within one
(56-55) with just under six minutes to play, but an Ilg triple sparked
a 10-0 Triton spurt to effectively put the game out of reach.
UCSD led wire-to-wire and shot 43% (27-63) for the game. HPU finished at a 34% clip, 24-70.
Paris Gravely scored 20 points to lead the Sea Warriors, while Maltresa Neely finished with 12 and Karasawa chipped in with 11.
The Tritons will face host Alaska on the final day of the Bank North Star Invite Saturday at 5:30 p.m. PT.
