By Esteban Ramirez
Sports Editor
Behind a 42-point second half, the CSU Bakersfield women’s basketball team beat Seattle University 73-61 in a Western Athletic Conference game at the Icardo Center on Feb. 28.
“I thought we did good,” CSUB coach Greg McCall said of his team’s performance. “I thought the first half we let the officials get to us a little bit, but I thought the second half we did a good job of adjusting. The game was called to our style, but we just weren’t used to officials letting us play physical and that’s the way we like to play. It kind of stunned us, but in the second half we turned it on.”
CSUB (21-7, 10-3 WAC) was down to SU (8-20, 5-8 WAC) at halftime 33-31, but CSUB responded in the second half with a balanced attack. The Roadrunners bench outscored the Redhawks bench 16-5 and outscored them in the paint 22-16. The ’Runners won the second half 43-28.
“We made an adjustment on the post player, and once we made that adjustment, we were able to stop her from doing some of the things she wanted to do,” McCall said. “Then we continued to play pressure defense. A lot of players stepped up that game. We are so deep that we could go 10 deep and still keep the same amount of pressure, so that has been very huge for us.”
CSUB was led by redshirt-senior guard Tyonna Outland’s 29 points and seven rebounds.
Junior forward Batabe Zempare added 14 points and 15 rebounds.
With this win, CSUB improved to 15-0 at home, extended its home-game winning streak to 21 and clinched the number two seed in the WAC Tournament.
“I thought we did well,” Outland said. “We played really good defense. We relied on our defense and it got us the lead in the second half and the win. In the first half, we weren’t rebounding but the second half we were dedicated to boxing out and doing the things we need to do.
“They tried to apply a little pressure, so I had to create a little bit for other people and myself.”
McCall added that every win right now is important.
“We never take a game lightly, so every game up to this point is huge because you want to go in with that momentum,” he said. “You want to go into the WAC Tournament with that momentum. You don’t want that backslide, so every game is huge.”
CSUB will play its final home game of the year against Utah Valley University at the Icardo Center on March 7 at 1 p.m.
McCall added that the team is excited and looking forward to the final home game of the regular season against UVU.
“I know the seniors are excited about that,” he said. “It’s their last game on the blue floor for them and it’s exciting.”
The Roadrunners will then head to Las Vegas for the WAC Tournament starting March 11 until March 14.
They will play Chicago State University (4-23, 1-12 WAC) in the first round.
The Roadrunners beat the Cougars handily in both their meetings this year.
In the first matchup on Jan. 24, CSUB won 83-58 behind 19 points from junior guard Alyssa Shannon.
In the second game this season, CSUB put forth an even stronger offensive display as they cruised past CSU to an 87-53 victory on Feb. 19.
“As a team it’s very important to keep that momentum and as a program it’s very important,” McCall said. “We just want to continue to make history and that is something we always talked about. “The more we keep doing what we are doing the better chance we will have to make history. That is something that we always talked about from the beginning of the year, and we weren’t just talking about it we were really, really harping about it.
“That didn’t just come from me. That came from our team because they really want it. They see it and they can feel it. We talked about that all the time from the beginning of the year, and now it’s here. Now that time has come and now we get the opportunity to see what we are made of.”
