The UCSD women’s basketball team faced the UC Davis Aggies on Friday night in the opening game of “”Rivalry Weekend”” at RIMAC Areana, losing 69-67.
Guardian
Although UC Davis came out on fire in the first half, UCSD made up for the Aggies’ hot shooting with tenacious offensive rebounding to stay in the game. At the end of the first half, Ali Ginn made a three-pointer to put UCSD ahead 30-29 heading into the break.
UCSD held a lead for most of the second half, continuing its dominance on the glass and holding off numerous Aggie comeback attempts.
But with two minutes remaining, UC Davis made a final run and took the lead by three. With 15 seconds left in regulation, UCSD looked to its leading scorer, sophomore guard Ginn. Ginn, who finished the game with 27 points and 10 rebounds, got the ball, stepped behind the three-point arc, and hit a contested shot with three seconds left to tie the game at 58.
Guardian
In overtime, the Tritons built a four-point lead with 21 seconds to go. But now it was the Aggies’ turn for heroics. After a UC Davis layup cut the Triton lead to two, the Aggies called a timeout to set up their full-court press.
After the UC Davis pressure caused the inbound pass to be broken up, the ball ended up in Aggie guard Kim Omer’s hands. Her desperation three-point shot found the bottom of the net and silenced the stunned UCSD crowd.
A half-court heave proved unsuccessful for UCSD, sealing Davis’ 69-67 overtime win.
“”We made some key errors at the end,”” said UCSD head coach Judy Malone. “”I can’t fault them; they worked really hard.””
Ginn was less accepting of the loss.
“”It’s upsetting because we all gave a really good effort,”” she said. “”The frustrating thing is that we played so hard.””
The Tritons out-rebounded Davis 57-35 for the game, but gave up 20 turnovers to the Aggies’ 12.
The next day, the Tritons fell to the Wildcats of Chico State 85-53.
The Tritons shot a season-low 25 percent from the field, and winning the basketball game seemed far from the players’ minds.
The senior night game had a different focus for Maya Fok, Danyiel Wortham and Renee Hudec.
When leading Triton scorer Katie McGann was asked what the priorities were for the evening, she showed how uncommon this night would be.
“”It’s about having fun,”” McGann said. “”Winning is important but this is [the seniors’] night.””
The Wildcats came out looking to spoil the celebration.
Chico State scored the first eight points of the game and stretched its lead to 23-10 early in the first quarter before its offense fell apart.
The Wildcats did not score for nearly seven minutes, but the Triton offense scored only two points during that time. UCSD went into the half trailing 37-26.
The second half proved to be no contest as the Wildcats rolled easily to the 32-point victory. The blowout gave Malone a chance to spread the minutes around, and all 14 Tritons on the roster got into the game.
“”I’m glad everyone got to play,”” Fok said. “”Every person on this team will be a lifelong friend and we don’t really care about wins and losses because it’s been so much fun this season.””
Spreading the thanks around, Fok also recognized her supporters.
“”I loved all the fans that were here for us,”” she said. “”The fans made my night.””
After making the nights of many UCSD fans, Fok, Wortham and Hudec ended their UCSD careers with a loss. But there are even better things to come in UCSD’s future.
“”We’re a young team,”” Malone said. “”There is a lot of promise in lots of different areas.””
Hope for the future will have to satisfy Triton basketball fans, since UCSD finishes its season 13-14 overall and 9-13 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
