Stats galore in UCI women’s basketball win

The UC Irvine women’s basketball team gets the day off Wednesday. But following the Anteaters 91-50 exhibition blowout of visiting La Verne on Tuesday, it may take a three-day weekend retreat to summarize the enormity of the contributions from all dozen UCI players.

It would be hard to imagine, in fact, Coach Doug Oliver’s squad ever getting so much from so many in any of the 30 regular-season games on this season’s schedule.

It was truly assembly-line basketball from the home team, for which everyone in uniform played at least 12 minutes, scored and contributed to the team’s 61 rebounds.

Only one Anteater failed to produce either an assist, steal or blocked shot, as the hosts simply outmanned the Division III Leopards.

“I like the confidence they are playing with,” said Oliver, whose players averaged 89 points in two exhibition wins, after topping the 80-point plateau just once during an 8-24 campaign in 2014-15.

“That’s the pace I’d like to play, though not everyone is going to allow us to play at that pace,” Oliver said. “We struggled so much to score last season, but we are showing the freedom to shoot the ball [thus far]. And we shared the ball. We had 19 assists to just 11 turnovers and that’s pretty good against anybody.”

Starters Tayla Jackson and Raelyn Cheung-Sutton, as well as reserves McKenzie Piper and Brittany Glassow, had 11 points apiece to help the ‘Eaters compile statistical dominance across the board.

UCI had 25 offensive rebounds to help create a 31-5 advantage on second-chance points. UCI scored 24 of the game’s 30 points off turnovers, and also had a huge cushion in bench scoring (50-17) and points in the paint (54-24), and rebounding (61-37).

La Verne shot just 25.8% in the first half on its way to 32.3% for the game and the Leopards (10-15 last season) shot only eight of the game’s 23 free throws.

“I thought there were moments when we defended at the level that is necessary,” Oliver said. “We improved since last week. There are a couple things we need to adjust, but I liked our defensive effort and I liked our play off the bench.”

Piper, a 6-foot junior transfer from Illinois, led the hosts with nine rebounds and added two assists, one steal and one block in 17 minutes. She was five for 10 from the field, including a three-pointer.

Jackson, a 6-3 freshman from British Columbia, Canada, made five of seven field-goal attempts and chipped in three rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 19 minutes.

Cheung-Sutton, a returning senior point guard, was four for six from the field, while adding four assists and two steals in 16 minutes.

Glassow was four for seven from the field on her way to 11 points and six rebounds. She also collected one assist and one block in 18 minutes.

Sophomore Teirra Hicks had nine points, four boards and four assists in 14 minutes, while sophomore Chloe Kellum chipped in seven points, six rebounds and two steals in 16 minutes.

Shereen Sutherland, a 6-2 junior, was four for seven from the field on her way to nine points and four rebounds. She added one assist and one steal in just 12 minutes.

Arianna Knox, a 6-1 freshman, had four points, seven rebounds and one assist to show she belonged in 14 minutes, while sophomore starter Paulina Santana had four points, four rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal in a team-high 24 minutes.

Junior standout Mokun Fajemisin, a first-team preseason All-Big West honoree, had six points, seven boards and one block in an economical 16 minutes.

UCI extended its lead in every quarter and led by as many as 43, in its final tune-up for Sunday’s regular-season opener against highly regarded visitor, St. John’s.

“Any time you put points on the board, it sort of solves a lot of [deficiencies],” Oliver said. “But I think when we lock in Sunday afternoon against a really good St. John’s team, the game will change for us. [The Red Storm is] going to pound on us and run by us and we’ll be so amped up, we’ll get a little tired. But the kind of confidence some of the kids get by playing those kind of minutes [Tuesday] will help.”

—

Exhibition

UC Irvine 91, La Verne 50

SCORE BY QUARTERS

La Verne 12 10 13 15 – 50

UCI 20 20 26 25 – 91

LV – Chism 12, Myers 10, Irwin 4, Pakalinawan 4, Osburn 3, Chan 8, Pena 4, Bishop 4, Rubino 1.

3-pt. goals – Osburn 1, Chan 1.

Fouled out – None.

Technicals – None.

UCI – Jackson 11, Fajemisin 6, Sutherland 9, Cheung-Sutton 11, Santana 4, Piper 11, Glassow 11, Hicks 9, Kellum 7, Dee 6, Knox 4, Chavez 2.

3-pt. goals – Dee 2, Piper 1, Glassow 1, Cheung-Sutton 1, Glassow 1.

Fouled out – Glassow.

Technicals – None.