Tritons lost to East Bay and beat Monterey Bay on a last-minute bucket by Webster

The UCSD women’s basketball team closed out a five-game home stand with a loss on Friday evening to Cal State East Bay, followed by a close victory on Saturday against Cal State Monterey Bay.

In their first matchup against the East Bay Pioneers (8–5 overall), junior guard Miranda Seto served as the team’s bright spot in an otherwise uninspired 78–58 loss. Seto led the Tritons on the attack with 19 points and finishing 6-for-8 from the field.

“I thought Miranda played with a tremendous amount of energy,” UCSD head coach Heidi VanDerveer said. “I thought we played hard all night.”

But the Tritons struggled throughout the second half to keep the contest close in spite of a 39–37 first half score.

While the Tritons shot 50 percent (13–26) from the field in the first half and went an impressive 6-for-9 from the three-point line, they seemed to fall apart after halftime. In the second half, UCSD sank a feeble 30 percent (7-for-23) of their shots from the field and went 1-for-6 from beyond the arc.

Beyond poor shooting, the Tritons also found themselves overwhelmed defensively by the Pioneer squad, which finished the game at 56 percent (30–53) from the field.

“I think in the second half we missed some shots and then really didn’t get matched up a couple times in transition,” VanDerveer said. “[We] gave up some easy baskets.”
However, the Tritons followed this loss with a close win against Cal State Monterey Bay, barely edging the Otters by a score of 40–38.

The Tritons, who came in as clear favorites to win against the 3–6 overall Otters, finished the game with a disappointing 29 percent shooting percentage (15–51) from the field.

“We definitely didn’t play our best. We kind of dug ourselves into a hole,” junior guard Stephanie Yano said. “We kind of shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.”

In spite of a poor offensive showing, the Tritons salvaged the win thanks to the late game heroics from Yano and junior center Dana Webster.

With barely over a minute left to play, Yano hit a clutch three-pointer to cut a four-point deficit to one and put the Tritons in a position for a comeback.

Soon after, Webster drove towards the basket and nailed a layup while being fouled with only 14 seconds remaining. She then sunk the free throw to put the Tritons up by two points.

“[The play] was designed for me,” Webster said. “Since I hadn’t had a basket that night, it was pretty likely they were going to go off to [Seto].”

On the following and final possession, the Otters’ push to force overtime came down to the wire, as they missed two layups before the buzzer sounded.
The Tritons are now 8–4 overall and 5–3 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

“I think we got all of our ugly games out of the way, and we’re just ready to kick some butt through the rest of conference schedule,” Yano said.

The Tritons will hope to do so on Friday, Jan. 17, as they travel to play at Sonoma State and will also face San Francisco State on the road the following day. Both games start at 5:30 p.m.