Reporter
The CSU Bakersfield women’s basketball team let one slip away in their conference matchup against Seattle University on senior night on Feb. 18 in the Icardo Center.
After defeating Utah Valley University by a score of 55-39 on Thursday, Feb. 16, the Roadrunners had won six of their previous seven games.
On Saturday, CSUB (12-13, WAC 7-4) held an eight point lead at one time during the second quarter, and led 26-24 at halftime.
Early in the third quarter, Seattle U (12-14, 9-2 WAC) went on a 12-2 run to take the lead.
Seattle U scored 20 points off of turnovers, including nine in the fourth quarter alone.
“We didn’t come out and execute how we were supposed to. We did not play very good basketball the whole second half, and what I mean by that is if you look at the stats, we sent them to the line 25 times, and they made 22 points from the free-throw line,” said McCall.
CSUB also converted only 11 of 20 attempts at the free throw line.
CSUB was also outrebounded by a margin of 45-39 on the afternoon.
“It didn’t come down to their offense killing us, it came down to second chance opportunities,” said McCall. “They got a lot of those. They had 15 points off of second chance opportunities.”
In the first half, redshirt-senior forward Erika Williams led the way for the Roadrunners, scoring 11 of the team’s first 26 points.
Williams knocked down three of her six attempts from three-point range in the first half. However, CSUB did not make another from deep for the rest of the game.
Williams finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds.
“There is no explanation for the third quarter that we had, except that they came out hungrier than we did,” said Williams. “It was more of us stopping ourselves.”
“I’m going to miss the blue court,” said senior center Brittany Sims.
Sims put up six points and three rebounds in the final home game of her college career.
“It’s bittersweet for me,” said Williams. “[We] wanted to come out with a win, [it] didn’t happen that way, but the love that I have gotten here is something I will never take back. Playing on that blue floor has become a part of me.”
CSUB now has three games on the road to finish the regular season.
“We are the team to win this WAC championship, there is no question about it. People play their hardest against us, they slack off against other teams. We get everybody’s hardest punch” said Williams.
CSUB will travel to the Midwest for their next game, where they are scheduled to face the University of Missouri-Kansas City on Thursday, Feb. 23.
