SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Cal State San Bernardino's women's basketball team held CCAA conference leader Cal State San Marcos scoreless for the first six minutes of the game and led by as much as seven points early Thursday.
Then the visiting Cougars showed why they have been a CCAA title contender and four-straight CCAA conference tournament participant with a 12-0 run spanning the end of the first and early minutes of the second quarter and turned the game into a rout with a 45-point second half to beat the host Yotes, 75-41, in Coussoulis Arena.
The loss dropped CSUSB to 6-7 overall and 4-4 in the CCAA. The Cougars improved to 10-3 overall and 7-1 in the CCAA.
The Yotes will try and regain some momentum in the CCAA by hosting Sonoma State at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The Seawolves edged Cal Poly Pomona, 60-58, Thursday night to improve to 10-5 on the season and 5-3 in the CCAA.
This wasn't the first time that the Cougars dominated CSUSB in such fashion. San Marcos had beaten the Yotes 74-51 in January 2020, then beat them 75-48 and 74-49 in their two meetings in 2022.
The loss extended the Yotes losing streak against San Marcos to eight straight games. CSUSB has just two of the last 11 meetings and are 3-10 overall against the Cougars since their first meeting in 2011.
Cougars Coach Renee Jimenez's mantra is "team defense wins games." That was certainly evident Thursday night.
Although the Yotes made only 16 turnovers, an average night for them, they were unable to put the ball in the hoop, making only 16 of 64 field goals (25 percent), and made just one of 16 three-pointers and only 44 percent of their free throws (44 percent).
CSUSB was outscored 45-23 in the second half after trailing 30-18 at intermission.
And, they were out rebounded 54-37 mostly on the defensive end.
Meanwhile San Marcos shot 46 percent for the night (28 of 61), made four of 12 three-pointers, and 15 of 24 from the foul line (62 percent). The Cougars players assisted on 20 field goals by their teammates. Defensively, the Cougars made five steals and blocked two shots.
CSUSB recorded just eight assists for the game to go with six steals and three blocked shots.
Destiny Jackson and
Jaida Jackson came into the game averaging a combined 27 points a game and nine rebounds a game with a combined 54 steals and 54 assists as the leaders of the Yotes team.
They finished the night with a combined 11 points making just four of 24 field goals between them but did pull down a combined 10 rebounds with a combined five assists and two steals.
The leading scorer for the Yotes turned out to be
Deja Blue, who had 10 points on four of seven shot attempts, collected seven rebounds and one steal in 22 minutes of action.
Auren Isaacson scored seven points. She made the only three-pointer of the game for CSUSB.
Mia Dufresne, the team's leading rebounder at 7.3 per game, finished with six rebounds, four points and one block in just 15 minutes of play. She played only five minutes in the first half.
Jordan Vasquez led the Cougars with a double-double – 20 points and 15 rebounds and contributed five assists in 27 minutes of play. Mina Tameilau added 15 points and eight rebounds. The team's leading scorer, Charity Gallegos, added 14 points, including three of six shots from beyond the arc, to go with her seven rebounds, five assists in 28 minutes. Truitt Reilly added 10 points and eight rebounds.
Leading by 12 at the half, the Cougars built a 21-point lead, 41-20, just three minutes into the third quarter and never looked back. With 1:05 left in the period the lead was 26 points at 54-28 and San Marcos finished the period up 54-31.
The Cougars scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to make it 64-31 with 7:46 remaining in the game.
OF NOTE – If Coach Renee Jimenez of CSUSM sounds familiar, she was the head women's coach at Cal State San Bernardino for two seasons, compiling a 28-25 record in 2013-14 and 2014-15 before taking the same job at San Marcos. Her last Yotes team went 19-9 on the season, 14-8 in CCAA play. She has led the Cougars to a 90-25 record over the past four season, 69-17 in the CCAA with four straight CCAA tournament appearances and a West Region finalist in 2023.
UP NEXT: The Yotes host Sonoma State at 1 p.m. in Coussoulis Arena. CSUSB trails in the all-time series 24-26, but are 15-10 against SSU at home. Follow the Yotes via live streaming on the CCAA Network or via live stats at csusbathletics.com
