LA MIRADA – Cal State San Bernardino overcame spotty shooting with some good defense Saturday in route to a 51-41 victory over host Biola University in the 2023 Cross Conference Tournament.
Combined with Friday's 78-76 win over Concordia University Irvine, the Yotes are 2-0 to start the season for the first time since the start of the 2014-15 season, a year in which the team posted a 19-9 record overall.
Biola split its two games in the tournament that featured teams from the Pacific West, Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.
The Yotes started fast, opening up a 15-5 advantage on the Eagles in the first 10 minutes of the game aided by nine Biola turnovers, but came back to earth when they hit only four of 17 shots in the second period to see their lead shrink to six, 26-20 at the half.
CSUSB continued its poor shooting, hitting just three of 10 shots in the third quarter while Biola hit five of eight shots but the gap remained the same as the Yotes maintained a six-point lead at 38-32. The Yotes bench outscored Biola's reserves 13-2 in the quarter.
Biola made a run midway through the fourth quarter and pulled to within three points at 41-38 with 5:16 left in the game. A 3-pointer by the Yotes
Jaida Jackson and a
Deja Blue free throw widened the gap to seven at 45-38.
Blue hit a jump shot off an assist by
Destiny Jackson with 1:35 left to make it 49-40 after Blue rebounded a miss by Jackson in the same sequence.
Jaida Jackson sank a pair of free throws with 1:01 left to seal the deal.
Destiny Jackson, who had 26 points in Friday's win, settled for a game-high 13 points, hitting just three of 10 shots, but made six of eight free throws to go with seven rebounds, four steals and two assists.
Jaida Jackson added 11 points and four rebounds. Blue totaled seven points to with five rebounds and three steals. Freshman
Jaushlynn Ruffin made her presence felt early with five points in the first quarter but was plagued by foul trouble the rest of the way.
Mia Dufresne only scored two points in the post but she came up with six rebounds and two blocked shots.
Overall, the Yotes shot 32.7 percent for the game (17 of 52), 20 percent from the three-point line (3 of 15) and once again shot 50 percent from the foul line (14 of 28), but only had 13 turnovers.
Biola might have made it tougher on the Yotes had they not committed 29 turnovers.
Natasa Radovic led the Eagles with 10 points and nine rebounds, four steals and three assists. Jordan Rabe had a game-high 11 rebounds for the Eagles to go with eight points, one steal and one blocked shot. Jessa Thurman, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, had eight points and six rebounds.
UP NEXT: The Yotes will be wearing their winter coats as they head to Fairbanks, Alaska to participate in the McKinley Bank North Star Invitational Tournament on Thanksgiving weekend. CSUSB will play the host Nanooks at 4:15 p.m. PT on Friday, Nov. 24 and then play Multnomah University of Portland, Ore. at noon on Nov. 25. Follow the stats at csusbathletic.com or streaming live video on the CCAA network
