UC San Diego Downs CSUN, 60-48 Thursday Night in Home Contest

NORTHRIDGE, Calif --- The CSUN women's basketball team fell to the UC San Diego Tritons, 60-48, Thursday night at Premier America Credit Union Arena. Rita Nazario led all CSUN scorers with 14 points. Jite Gbemuotor added 13 and Saray White scored in double figures as well with 12 points. Sabrina Ma of the Tritons led all scorers with 23 points. White and Gbemuotor also had eight rebounds each.

HOW IT HAPPENED
In the first quarter, defense was the story as the Tritons held CSUN to just five points while scoring 14 themselves. UCSD got out to an early 12-2 run with six points coming from Ma. CSUN ended the run with a Nazario step-back to make it a 12-4 game with 1:05 remaining in the first.

In the second quarter, CSUN fought back, scoring the quarter's first six points thanks to Saray White, Nazario and Nadia Bernard, all with a field goal in the early going. Out of the first media timeout, a Matador free throw and a Bernard jump shot completed a 9-0 run to begin the quarter. The run was stopped by a Triton free throw of their own. White responded with a three-pointer to give CSUN its first lead of the game at 17-15 at the 5:42 mark.

The Tritons came back with a three of their own to take the lead once again at 18-17. It became a back-and-forth battle for the rest of the quarter, with no team taking a commanding lead as CSUN entered the intermission with a 23-20 lead. Nine of White's 12 points came in the second alone.

SECOND HALF
UC San Diego's defense turned up a notch in the third. The Tritons stormed out of the gates with a 15-0 run with balanced scoring up and down the roster. CSUN broke the run at the 2:38 mark, a Nazario three to make it a 35-26 game. The Nazario three was a part of a Matador run of their own, this time of the 8-2 variety, capped off with a White free throw to make it a 37-31 game with 32 seconds left in the third. A Triton jump shot made the lead 39-31 heading into the game's final 10 minutes.

The fourth quarter was the highest scoring quarter of the night in total. Gbemuotor splashed a shot from downtown and a Nazario step-back made it a one possession game at 39-37 with 9:08 left to play. UCSD countered with a 7-0 run to push the lead back to nine with 8:26 left. Erika Aspajo answered with a shot from distance to cut it to six. UCSD then went on one of its biggest runs of the second half, this time of the 14-6 variety to make it 60-46 with 42 seconds left. The run was too much to overcome as CSUN couldn't climb out of the late hole in the closing seconds.

NOTES OF THE GAME

The second quarter was the best quarter for the Matadors. They took the lead while scoring 18 (highest of the night) and limiting the best offense in the Big West to only six points.
Saray White posted her sixth consecutive game scoring in double-figures.
Rita Nazario had her best scoring game since scoring 16 against Pepperdine on Dec. 20
Erika Aspajo had a season-high five steals.
CSUN shot 81.8% from the charity stripe going 9-11 from the line.

UP NEXT
CSUN travels to Long Beach State to take on the Beach this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

UC San Diego Downs CSUN, 60-48 Thursday Night in Home Contest

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Team Stats

Rita Nazário

Jite Gbemuotor

Saray White

Erika Aspajo

Players Mentioned

Erika Aspajo

Nadia Bernard

Jite Gbemuotor

Saray White