Women’s basketball crushed Cal State Monterey Bay on the road, 85-65, Thursday evening and improved its overall record to 17-2.
The win also helped the Broncos extend their winning streak to 10 games.
The Broncos were led by junior forward Rebecca Islas, who had 17 points and seven rebounds.
“I started off really slow, I only had I think like two points in the first half, and then the second half that’s where I got all my points, and I was in a bit of a slump, so it was really good to get out of that slump today,” Islas said. “It was just a matter of being more aggressive on the offensive side. I wasn’t really looking to score, I was being more passive, so the second half I definitely looked to score a lot more.”
In the first quarter, the Otters came out fast and quickly put points on the board, but key baskets from junior guard Dominique Dotson, who scored seven points in the quarter, gave the Broncos the opportunity to pull back and finish the quarter with a 16-15 lead.
For the second quarter, the Broncos tightened up defensively and only allowed the Otters to score 10 points. Late in the quarter with 1:31 on the clock, the Broncos finally started pulling away after freshman guard Jayda Villareal nailed her second three of the night and went into the half with a 40-25 lead.
Despite the struggles from the Broncos’ starters early in the game, the Broncos’ bench contributed with 16 points in the first half.
“They were great, we have our freshman Jayda Villareal come in and honestly that’s when we went up, she came in and hit two big threes,” said head coach Danelle Bishop.
“Lauryn Catching coming in, off the bench, playing extremely well for us, she just came in real confident.”
Starting the third quarter the Broncos went on a 10-2 run after back-to-back layups from Islas and extended their lead 46-27.
With 1:10 left on the clock in the third, the Broncos took their largest lead of the game up to that point, by 21 points, after a fast break from junior forward Monica Todd. Moments later when the clock was winding down, the Otters made a couple of baskets that helped them reduce the score to 59-41.
During the first minutes of the fourth quarter, the Broncos and Otters both started hot and exchanged three pointers.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Broncos slowed down and with the clock at 6:31, the Otters attempted a final comeback and scored back-to-back threes and drove into the paint on a fast break.
Despite the Otters’ late push, the Broncos quickly responded with a jumper from senior guard Jordyn Shane and two free-throws made by Islas.
Later in the fourth, the Broncos took their largest lead of the night (by 23 points) after Villareal went to the line for a foul she received and nailed both free throws.
Shane was one of four Broncos with double figures in points (16) and tied for most rebounds with seven.
“I think I played pretty well. I was doing good with rebounding and sharing the ball and getting everybody involved,” Shane said. “I think for me, I’m just a really athletic person, and I have a little bit of a jumping ability but I think with rebounding what works for me is just making sure that even if it’s a big or a small, just boxing out, being in front, being quick to get the ball.”
The Broncos passed Cal State East Bay 76-70 Saturday evening to push their winning streak to 11 games.
With four Broncos in double figures in points, junior forward Kasey Smit led the Broncos with 17 points.
Todd was right behind her with 14.
Shane scored 12 while Islas contributed with 10.
Shooting 40 percent from the field, the Broncos scored 26 points in the paint and 20 off of turnovers.
With an 11-game winning streak and just a game behind first in the CCAA conference, the Broncos will host undefeated UC San Diego on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. and Cal State San Marcos on Saturday afternoon.
