CARSON, Calif. - In a tough matchup that came down to the wire, the UC San Diego women's basketball team defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills 60-55 in a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) matchup on Saturday at the Torodome.
With the win, UCSD improves to 7-3 in the conference and 9-6 overall while CSUDH falls to 8-2 in the CCAA and 13-5 overall.
The Tritons and Toros battled back-and-forth in the beginning. With the score tied 6-6, the Tritons would start a 13-3 run ignited by a successful Farrah Shokoor layup and-one opportunity to lead CSUDH 19-9 with 10:39 left in the first half.
The Toros answered back with an offensive onslaught of their own and would cut the margin to five, 24-19, after a Kielyn Wilson layup with 5:51 left in the period. UCSD would close out the stanza with another surge, an 8-2 run, as the Tritons went into halftime with a nine-point advantage, 32-23.
CSUDH came out of the gates strong in the second half as the Toros cut the Triton lead to four, 36-32, after starting the half outscoring the Tritons 9-4. UCSD would answer back wtih a Beth Mounier three-pointer to bring the lead back to seven.
The Toros would climb back out of the hole and make it a three-point game, 41-38, after a Tayler Champion basket with 10:26 left in the game.
The Tritons would hit five consecutive free throws to increase the lead to eight, 46-38, after two CSUDH technical fouls with 8:38 remaining.
The Toros battled back and eventually cut the UCSD lead to one, 56-55, after Talia Rayford converted the and-one play with 54 seconds remaining. It would be the last basket that CSUDH would make as the Tritons stopped the Toros on back-to-back posessions.
"I think it was a great character win for our team," said UCSD head coach Heidi VanDerveer. "We had a dissapointing loss last night. Today we came out with a mindset that we're going to play every posession very hard and we did that."
Monay Lee led the way for CSUDH with 16 points.
For UCSD, Shokoor recorded her ninth double-double of the season with 15 points and 18 rebounds. Dana Webster nearly came away with her second double-double in as many games with 11 points and nine rebounds. Mounier provided scoring off the bench with 11 points including three baskets from behind the arc.
"I thought we handled the ball inside very well with Farrah (Shokoor) getting 18 boards, but I think her four assists show how complete of a player she is. I think we got great contributions from everybody on our team" VanDerveer said.
The Tritons will be back at RIMAC Arena on Friday, Jan. 23 against Cal State San Bernardino for their next game. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.
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