Reporter
Honoring the seniors in their last game at the Icardo Center, the Roadrunners faced Grand Canyon University.
The battle played all the way through to double overtime with 14 lead changes. The last lead change, unfortunately, fell in the hands of GCU. With the No. 1 seed at stake and a share at being co-regular conference season champs, the Roadrunners fell one point shy in the finals seconds, 77-76, on Saturday, March 3.
“We were that close, Basketball God’s just said no on the lay-up,” said Head Coach Greg McCall.
“That girl makes that lay-up ten out of ten times, but all it takes is just that one time. It was a good game. Hats off to them, we’ll probably see them again going into the conference tournament.
McCall said he was a little upset because they had the win a few times ,”but come time for the conference tournament we’ll come ready to play. We got some warriors, they’ll be ready to go and we’re going to come hungry.”
The Roadrunners (16-12, 10-4 WAC) took the lead early and closed out the first quarter with a five point lead going up 13-8. Ball control for CSUB was the key factor in the first quarter tallying seven points off turnovers while offensively not giving any points to turnovers.
The second half closed out with GCU (15-13, 9-5) hitting a three-point shot at the buzzer cutting the Roadrunners’ lead from seven to four. The score at half-time was 30-26 in favor of CSUB.
Senior guard Aja Williams lead the Roadrunners in scoring in the first half, with seven points and would finish the game leading all Roadrunners with 22 points before fouling out in the first overtime. Williams was on fire on senior night and her absence going into double overtime was felt.
“After a loss like this going forward, the game plan stays the same but mentally we need to get started early so we can put the game away and not let them comeback. A game like this is a good and bad thing, but I think a game like this could be beneficial because next time we know we have to come with it, said Williams.
With 22 seconds left in the third, GCU showed signs of momentum again hitting another field goal cutting the Roadrunners lead to three. Then in the fourth quarter with two seconds to go, GCU tied the game and the game headed into overtime.
With 50 seconds left in double overtime redshirt-junior guard Jazmine Johnson hit a three pointer to bring the lead down to one point. GCU’s next possession was a missed a lay-up and with the eight seconds to go, the final possession in the Roadrunners hand the lay-up, McCall spoke about, did not go in and the game ended with GCU on top 77-76
“All I can say is we just take in what happened and make adjustments so that a game like this won’t happen again,” said Johnson.
After a tough loss. The Roadrunners still have a lot of basketball left and will head to the WAC Tournament Wednesday, March 7 as the number two seed where they’ll play No. 7 UTRGV in the first round. The game will be streamed live through WAC digital network.
