December 4, 2014 Bulldogs 73 — Highlanders 61 The old adage has it that all good things must come to an end, as was the case for the UCR women’s basketball team Thursday night, when their unprecedented 5-0 start was brought to a screeching halt by the Fresno State Bulldogs. A 6-6 tie early in the first half was the closest the Highlanders would ever get to gaining an edge on the Bulldogs. Soon after, all hope was quickly dashed when Fresno State scored the next six points to take a 12-6 lead over the Highlanders. Throughout the rest of the first half, the Bulldogs continued to slowly but surely build upon their lead, and ended up with a 36-27 lead going into the locker room. At the start of the second half, sloppy would be an understatement to describe what transpired in the first two minutes of play on both sides. Five misses, three turnovers and six fouls resulted in zero points for both teams, until Fresno State’s Robin Draper nailed a three to end the drought. Though the Highlanders were able to keep pace with the Bulldogs throughout much of the second half, they were unable to score enough points to bring them within range of rallying for victory, and the wheels really began to fall off when a 10-1 Fresno State run provided the Bulldogs with a nearly insurmountable 68-50 lead at the 5:24 mark. By the end of the match, the Highlanders had shaved six points off the Bulldogs’ aforementioned lead, but nonetheless left the court with the bitter taste of defeat for the first time in this young season. December 6, 2014 Roadrunners 66 — Highlanders 65 Despite a strong bounce-back performance by leading scorer Brittany Crain, the UCR women’s basketball team dropped its second straight match Saturday afternoon against CSU Bakersfield. The Highlanders dominated the opening stanza of the match, scoring eight in a row before the Roadrunners could even muster a single point. After essentially trading buckets for the rest of the first half, the Highlanders ended up taking a 29-17 lead into the locker room. Brittany Crain’s 10 points paced the team at that point, despite an underwhelming 3-10 shooting from the field. The domination continued for the Highlanders at the start of the second half, as a 7-0 run early in the period gave UCR a commanding 38-20 lead. Though one would be led to believe that the Highlanders would continue to control the match, the exact opposite occurred as the Roadrunners were able to buckle down on defense and force multiple UCR turnovers en route to cutting the team’s lead down to just one point by the 4:21 mark. By 3:17, the match was tied, and by 2:29, the Roadrunners had taken their first lead of the night. With the Highlanders nursing a two-point lead on what could possibly be the last possession of the game with 0:21 to go, the Roadrunners capitalized off a Tyonna Outland layup, tying the match at 65-65. In addition to that, a Brittany Crain foul gave Outland the opportunity to give her team the lead off a free throw attempt, which she also connected on. With five seconds to go and the game on the line, the Highlanders turned to Simone DeCoud, who fired on a three-point attempt that ultimately ended up off the mark. After effectively snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the Highlanders look to put an unfortunate weekend behind them as they prepare to take on the UCLA Bruins on Wed., Dec. 10.
