LA JOLLA, Calif. ? Trailing by three after a lackluster first period, the UC San Diego women's basketball team opened the second half on a 9-1 run and never looked back, defeating visiting Cal State Dominguez Hills 66-56 Saturday night at RIMAC Arena.
Erin Noonan led all scorers with 17 points and
Annette Ilg finished with 14 to lead the Tritons to their fourth consecutive win.
UCSD improves to 11-2 overall and 4-0 in the CCAA with the victory, while CSUDH falls to 6-5, 1-3 CCAA after suffering its second straight loss in conference play. The Tritons have won 10 of their last 11 overall and wrapped up their seven game homestand with a mark of 6-1.
UCSD held the Toros without a field goal for the first 7:24 of the second half and turned a 28-25 halftime deficit into a 37-32 advantage with 11:27 remaining. Noonan opened the period with a triple and then hit a midrange jumper at the 17:12 mark to give the Tritons a 32-28 lead.
Michelle Osier's putback six minutes later gave UCSD the five point margin.
The Toros closed to within two (41-39) on a layup by Barbara Houston, but Ilg responded with a three on the other end and
Lauren Freidenberg scored on her own offensive rebound to push the lead to seven points with 6:53 left to play.
Dominguez would get no closer than four the rest of the way and UCSD led by as many as 15 points (65-50), before settling for the 10-point win.
Noonan finished 5-of-8 from the field and sank five of her six shots at the free throw line to finish with a career-best 17, eclipsing her previous mark of 15 that also came against the Toros last season.
Ilg was 3-of-6 on threes and 5-of-8 overall and scored nine of her 14 points in the decisive second half. The junior guard also finished with four rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
Alexis Gaskin finished with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting to round out the scoring for the Tritons.
Michelle Osier, UCSD's leading scorer, was just 3-of-10 from the field and finished with nine points, ending her streak of 22 consecutive games scoring in double figures.
Brittney Blakenship scored 14 points to lead the Toros, while Houston finished with 10 off the bench.
UCSD shot 54% in the second half after hitting just 9-of-26 shots in the first to finish at 44% (22-50) for the game. The Tritons finished with a season-low 25 points in the opening period, eclipsing their previous low of 28 that came at Western Washington November 22.
CSUDH shot 30% for the game, hitting 22-of-73 shots.
The Tritons will hit the road for the first time in over a month when they travel to Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona next weekend. UCSD will face Coyotes on Friday, January 9, before squaring off with the Broncos on Saturday. Both contests will tipoff at 5:30 p.m.
