LA JOLLA, Calif. - Sophomore guard Emily Osga scored a
game-high 22 points to lead the surging UC San Diego women's basketball team to
a comfortable 74-45 triumph over visiting Cal State Dominguez Hills on Saturday
evening at RIMAC Arena.
The Toros opened the
game with a three-pointer from Hillarie Grant, but the Tritons scored the next
10 points and never looked back, cruising to their sixth consecutive victory. UCSD
outscored CSUDH 46-23 in the opening period, draining 10 first half threes to
build an insurmountable lead.
With the win, UCSD
improves to 10-7 overall and 8-2 in California Collegiate Athletic Association
play, remaining two games behind league leader Cal State Monterey Bay. The
Tritons have won eight of their last nine overall and taken the last 14
meetings with the Toros.
Cal State Dominguez
Hills falls to 2-12 overall and 2-7 in the CCAA. The Toros had won two of three
entering Saturday's game.
Osga had one of the
best shooting nights of her young career, finishing 8-of-11 from the field and
6-for-7 from the three-point line. She was perfect 5-for-5 from the behind the
arc in the first half, tallying 19 points in 17 first half minutes.
The Patrick Henry
High School product was the only player to reach double figures in scoring for
the Tritons, with Chelsea Carlisle, Erin Grady and Erin Dautremont all finishing
with eight in limited action. Carlisle dished out a game-high six assists and
finished with three steals.
Meghan Duron scored
nine points of the bench to lead Dominguez, while Grant finished with eight.
While the Triton
offense was doing its thing - UCSD shot 49% from the field - the defense was
outstanding as well, limiting the Toros to just 45 points on 44% shooting. UCSD
won the battle on the glass, 34-22, and forced a total of 27 turnovers.
"We talked about
coming out and playing a complete 40 minutes tonight and we did that," head
coach Charity Elliott said. "I thought our defense played really well and that was
something we have been working on, so it was a great effort on both sides of
the ball."
UCSD scored 10 of the
game's first 13 points, with Osga accounting for eight, including a pair of
threes. CSUDH answered with nine straight points to pull to within 13-12, but
Carlisle followed with a triple, Dautremont scored on a breakaway and Osga
connected from outside again to put the Tritons in front 21-12 with 11:47 left
in the half.
UCSD scored 12 consecutive
points later in the period to push the margin to 22 at 38-16 and Osga's fifth
three of the half made it 46-21 with less than two minutes remaining.
The Tritons shot 55%
in the period, converting 17-of-31 shots from the field, and drained 10-of-20
from the three-point line to easily combat the Toros' zone defense. UCSD scored
27 points off 17 CSUDH turnovers in the half.
The Tritons extended
their lead to 28 at 56-28 following a jumper by Grady and another Osga three
less than four minutes into the second half and Dautremont's layup with 12
minutes left gave UCSD its biggest advantage at 62-33.
The Tritons will conclude
their four-game homestand next week when Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly
Pomona come to town January 20 and 22.
"We're playing really
well right now and we're going to try to keep rolling," Osga said.
