UCR’s Feb. 9 match against Cal State Fullerton began with a moment of silence to honor the Fullerton assistant basketball coach who allegedly lost her life to the hands of Christopher Jordan Dorner last weekend. Monica Quan was only 28 when she and her fiance were killed in Irvine.
The Highlanders would end up winning the game, but the spotlight was on the Fullerton coaches and players. During the post-game press conference, they addressed the emotions they felt throughout the game.
“We are very sad to be here for this situation—for this tragic situation today,” said a tearful Marcia Foster, the Cal State Fullerton head basketball coach. “My kids, they played with their hearts today. It was hard for us to get out on the floor because a part of our family was missing.”
Fullerton never led in the game as the Highlanders took command of the match from start to finish. UCR slowly built its lead to as many as 10 points in the first half and had a comfortable advantage going into the locker rooms. They led 30-24 at halftime.
The Titans attempted to get things in order in the second half, but the Highlanders would not budge. UCR led by 10 midway through the second half and would go on a huge run to extend the lead. The Highlanders outscored the Titans 25-4 in that span to take a commanding 21-point lead with three minutes remaining. The game was all but sealed at that point. UCR went on to win it, 64-45 over Fullerton.
Tre’Shonti Nottingham propelled UCR with 23 points. She shot a perfect 12-12 from the free-throw line. UCR’s Natasha Hadley added 14 points for the Highlanders on 55 percent shooting.
Fullerton had a subpar performance all across the board. The Titans turned the ball over 22 times and shot just 28.6 percent from the floor by the end of the game.
After the match, the Fullerton players talked about their performance and the difficulty they had during the game in dealing with the loss of their coach.
“Today was definitely difficult for all of us,” said Alex Thomas, one of the Fullerton captains. “We tried to use it as fuel. We tried using it as motivation, but it’s hard. We wish we could have pulled it out and had a better performance today.”
“I wish we would have played better,” said Foster after the game, agreeing with her player.
Shortly after learning about the death of their coach, Fullerton actually asked the Big West conference to cancel the game. Due to scheduling conflicts, however, the conference was unable to comply and the game went through as scheduled.
Throughout the game, both teams also pinned bright orange ribbons over their warm ups to honor Quan.
This was the final meeting of the regular season for both teams. UC Riverside will go on to play UC Irvine Feb. 14 at the Student Recreation Center.
