Cal State Fullerton women\u2019s basketball secured its second-consecutive season-sweep over ninth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield at Titan Gym Saturday afternoon, 60-57.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Cristina Jones remained a huge standout contributor, following up her 35 point and 20 rebound performance against the Roadrunners on Feb. 7 with her second 20\/20 game on the season \u2013 two of the six in program history.<\/p>\n
Jones had 21 points and 21 rebounds to her name, her eighth double-double of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving my teammates\u2019 and my coaches\u2019 support, anytime I hear them say \u2018Rebound, crash, or you know, just go up and show in front of them, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do,\u2019\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
The decisive moment that shifted the game in CSUF\u2019s favor occurred when guard Kya Pearson found freshman Nicole Steiner for a game-tying layup late in the third quarter, as the Titans held the lead for the majority of the remaining time and saw a dominant third quarter put them back in the driver’s seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just a matter of us playing together,\u201d said Head Coach John Bonner. \u201cThe ability to kind of just read the defense and make great plays, and I thought that was a situation where they executed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steiner praised Pearson\u2019s elite passing and team-first mentality.<\/p>\n
\u201cK.P. is the best passer, she\u2019ll look for us before she looks for her own shot,\u201d Steiner said.<\/p>\n
Cal State Bakersfield showed tenacity on defense, swarming ball handlers en route to forcing six turnovers on four steals.<\/p>\n
The Roadrunners\u2019 impressive 80% conversion rate at the charity stripe crept them ahead early, 25-14, by the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think they\u2019re a team very similar to ours, they like to cause a lot of disruptions,\u201d Bonner said. \u201cThey do a really good job of getting to the free throw line, and so we knew it was going to be a battle coming in just because of their speed and athleticism.\u201d<\/p>\n
CSUF kept the game close with a layup by Jones, cutting the lead to three with a few minutes left in the half.<\/p>\n
However, Cal State Bakersfield made the Titans pay for their meager 20% 3-point shooting, going on an 8-2 run near the half. CSUF went into halftime trailing 36-28.<\/p>\n
The Titans\u2019 offense got rolling during the third quarter, shooting 42.9% from the field in comparison to the Roadrunners\u2019 21.4%.<\/p>\n
CSUF also dominated their Big West rival in the paint, with a 36-26 point edge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just came into the half knowing we just got to pick it up with each other,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s never about the other team and what they\u2019re doing, it\u2019s always about how we have to stick together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after Steiner\u2019s equalizing play, free throws by Jones and sophomore Maddy Tauro gave CSUF the lead, 42-40, for the first time since the opening minutes.<\/p>\n
Another timely bucket by Jones extended the Titans\u2019 lead to four going into the fourth quarter. Both teams engaged in a back-and-forth battle, taking a lead no greater than four.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, a late foul by guard Morgan Hawkins sent Tauro to the line, who converted the Titans\u2019 game-sealing free throw with 11 seconds left.<\/p>\n
The Titans fly across the Pacific Ocean to take on the fifth-seeded University of Hawai\u2019i on Saturday, Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cal State Fullerton women\u2019s basketball secured its second-consecutive season-sweep over ninth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield at Titan Gym Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,4365,71824,73964,71826,87603,38077,85229],"class_list":{"0":"post-189530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news","11":"tag-big-west","12":"tag-cristina-jones","13":"tag-john-bonner","14":"tag-kya-pearson","15":"tag-maddy-tauro","16":"tag-morgan-hawkins","17":"tag-nicole-steiner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}