Women’s basketball: ‘Eaters come away with a victory

Amara Aguilar

BREN EVENTS CENTER - Finally, a happy ending.

After being on the losing end of blowouts in its last two conference

games, the UC Irvine women’s basketball team rebounded by using a strong

finish to defeat Idaho, 60-45, in a Big West Conference game Tuesday.

Although the Vandals tied the score, 41-41, with 7:56 remaining, UCI

went on a 19-4 run to snuff the Vandals’ hopes of stealing a victory.

“I just told the players that they did a great job ending the game,”

UCI Coach Mark Adams said. “We took care of the basketball. We hit our

free throws. We didn’t turn it over. We boxed out. We didn’t give them

second opportunities and we finished the game really well.”

Jana Ciperova sparked the late run on a jumper with 6:50 left to play

to give the Anteaters a 43-41 advantage.

Keisha Moore answered by hitting one of two free-throw attempts for

Idaho (6-11, 0-6), but UCI scored the next eight points to pull away.

The Anteaters (5-10, 2-2 in the Big West) made nine of 12 from the

free-throw line in the last five minutes of the game.

“That was key. Cindy Oparah stepped up and hit some free throws and

that was good,” Adams said. “She hit a couple tonight and some of the

other kids stepped up and hit theirs. I thought Erin Tomlinson did a

really nice job hitting her free throws down the stretch.”

From the free-throw line in the second half, Oparah made 3 of 7,

Tomlinson made 3 of 4 and Ciperova made 5 of 6.

The Anteaters did not attempt a free throw in the first half en route

to a 27-20 lead at the break. Kristen Green scored eight points in the

first half and had two three-pointers.

“(Green) came out and shot the ball well for us fortunately because

their zone kind of stymied us for a little bit,” Adams said.

Although the Anteaters fell behind early, they went on an 18-4 run to

take a 22-10 lead with 7:41 left in the first half.

Oparah, who took a team-leading 15.3 points per game average into the

game, did not score in the first half.

“She wasn’t reading the defense right,” Adams said. “We made our

adjustment. The baseline side was open and she was looking inside and she

did a nice job adjusting tonight.”

Oparah exploded for nine points in the second half. She also grabbed

six rebounds in the game.

“Stuff happens,” Oparah said. “It’s a good thing not to let (not

scoring in the first half) affect your whole game. I’m just glad I could

do something in the second half to help us win.”

Leading the Anteaters offensively was Christina Callaway with 12

points and six rebounds. Ciperova piled up 11 points, followed by Green

(10 points), Brandy Hudson (eight points) and Lisa Woznick (seven

points).

“Being 2-2 in conference is nice,” Adams said. “We haven’t been .500

for a long time. I was just real proud of the kids tonight. That was a

great win for us.”

The Vandals lost their sixth straight game.

“I knew that this team hadn’t won a game so they were going to come

out extra, extra hard, so I wanted to get things going and I wanted to

try to pump up the team,” Green said. “Everyone is extra happy. I think

this is a good start. We were kind of off after the big losses (against

UC Riverside and Long Beach State). We’re just working our way up now.”