LA JOLLA, Calif. – The UC San Diego women's basketball team fell in the final seconds to CSU Bakersfield at RIMAC Arena tonight, 69-66. With the outcome, UC San Diego moves to 2-7 on the season and in Big West action, while CSU Bakersfield improves to 9-7 overall and 7-5 in conference play.
The Tritons were in command early on in the game. In the first quarter, UC San Diego scored 25 points on 11-18 shooting and finished with 10 unanswered points in the final four minutes.
Tyla Turner was a major contributor to the Tritons' 25-11 first period advantage, as she knocked down all four of her field goal attempts for 10 points.
UC San Diego stayed hot in the second quarter, but CSU Bakersfield stepped up its game as well. Both teams went 7-14 shooting, but the Roadrunners edged the Tritons with 19 points compared to UC San Diego's 18, bringing the score to 43-29 in the Tritons' favor at halftime. The quarter was highlighted by a last-second heave from
Brianna Claros, whose shot from a few feet behind the half-court line went in as time expired.
UC San Diego's momentum started to fizzle in the third quarter, while the Roadrunners escalated their offensive efforts. CSU Bakersfield knocked down two-thirds of its field goal attempts (8-12) and missed just one free throw attempt (9-10) en route to 27 points in the third quarter, taking a narrow 56-55 lead over the Tritons.
The teams were neck and neck in the fourth quarter, trading the lead back and forth. After the Tritons trailed, 66-64,
Sydney Brown nailed two free throws with 1:30 left to even the score. However, with two seconds left in the game, Lexus Green of CSU Bakersfield made a 3-point shot. UC San Diego was unable to respond in the remaining time, bringing the final score to 69-66 in the Roadrunners' favor.
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Next, the Tritons will travel to UC Riverside. The teams will square off at 4 p.m. on Feb. 19-20.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America accolades, while 37 have received prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
