Box Score Fullerton, Calif. – Balanced scoring helped UC Irvine picked up its first Big West win with a 62-58 victory over Cal State Fullerton at Titan Gym.
UCI snapped an 11-game losing skid and goes to 4-16 overall and 1-5 in the Big West, while Fullerton drops to 2-17 on the year and 0-5 in league action.
UCI had six players make solid contributions led by forward Mokun Fajemisin's 14 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots. Forward Shereen Sutherland had 12 points and six rebounds, followed by Mckenzie Piper, Andee Ritter and Raelyn Cheung-Sutton with nine points each. Cheung-Sutton who leads the Big West and is 16th nationally in assists, had a game-high eight. Irene Chavez added seven points in the victory.
UCI was 11-12 from the line, missing just one of its two final attempts of the night, while CSF went 12-20 from the line. The Titans shot better from the floor (.385-.375), had more rebounds (43-33) and hit more three-pointers (6-3), but committed 23 turnovers to UCI's 12. The Anteaters would score 18 points off Titan miscues. UCI also swiped nine steals.
Cal State Fullerton was led by Michelle Berry with a game-high 18 points and 14 rebounds. Jade Vega and Dani Craig each posted 13 points.
The Anteaters scored the final six points of the first period on a Tayla Jackson basket plus two buckets by Shereen Sutherland to hold a 16-9 lead after the initial 10 minutes.
The Titans closed within four (20-16) at the 5:59 mark of the second quarter, but the Anteaters responded with the next seven, including four more from Sutherland to build the largest lead of the night 27-16 at 3:59. CSF went on the next run scoring the final seven of the first half with UCI holding a 27-22 advantage at the break.
A Raelyn Cheung-Sutton layup and a three-pointer by Irene Chavez with a minute left in the third period extended UCI's lead to 42-33. A Titan free throw ended the period with the Anteaters maintaining a 42-34 lead heading in to the final quarter.
The Anteaters would lead by eight (55-47) on a Mckenzie Piper jumper before the Titans rallied on a pair of Jade Vega free throws and a basket by Dani Craig to narrow the margin to 55-51 with 46 seconds left. Chueng-Sutton was fouled and extended her free throw streak to 20 in a row (57-51) with 33 ticks remaining. Vega would hit from long distance just four seconds later making it a three-point contest (57-54). Andee Ritter would knock down two free throws and after a missed three-pointer by the Titans Irene Chavez would hit two more to build the lead back to seven (61-54) with 18 seconds left. The teams would trade a free throw before Samantha Logan's trey ended the game, 62-58.
UCI will host CSUN Thursday (Jan. 28) at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center.
