ORANGE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Women's Basketball team returned to the court Thursday afternoon for their final non-conference game of 2022-23 and despite winning two of the four quarters could not come away with the win falling 66-57 to University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Redlands ends their two-game winning streak as they move to 7-3, 2-0 SCIAC, while Wisc.-La Crosse improves to 11-2, 0-2 WIAC.
Three players recorded double digit scoring efforts with Hannah Jerrier (Canton, MA) tying with Alyssa Downs (South San Francisco, CA) for a team-high in points with 13 while grabbing 15 rebounds, her seventh-straight game with double-digit boards. Chyanne Pagkalinawan (Valencia, CA) was the other Bulldog to hit double digits tossing in 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting to go with five assists. This was her third five plus assist game in her last four.
In the second-ever meeting between these two teams, Redlands took an early lead 13-11 after the opening quarter thanks to a Pagkalinawan jumper with :06 seconds left. Earlier in the period Pagkalinawan hit a three to put UR on top, but the Eagles would then go on a 7-0 run covering the next two and a half minutes. The Maroon and Grey would respond with six in a row, which put UR back on top, 9-7. During the run Colbi Zorich (Kenmore, WA) would hit one of two from the free throw line, Pagkalinawan made a jumper that forced an Eagle timeout and Downs would cap things off with a three-pointer.
The Bulldogs' defensive unit was stout once again in the early stages of the second quarter, allowing just two points in the first three plus minutes as they led by three, 16-13, following a Nataly Bravo (Spring Valley, CA) three-pointer. But the U of R offense would go cold over the next 6:35 scoring only five points, while seeing the Eagles put up 17. At the break UR trailed by nine, 30-21.
Opening up the second half the Eagles would extend their lead to double figures. Downs and Jerrier would add buckets to cut the deficit to six, 38-32, with 4:42 left. Then after getting behind by as many as nine late in the period, Bravo would come up with another critical triple as time expired to get Redlands within six for the second time, 44-38, handing the Bulldogs their second won quarter on the night.
Across the final ten minutes Redlands was unable to get any closer than the six-points despite putting up 19-points and shooting 36.4% from the field. In the end the Eagles would hold on for the nine-point victory.
As a team the Bulldogs won the rebounding battle (41-40), but were outscored by two in second chance points (13-11) and 32 in points in the paint (40-8). They also assisted on half of their 18 made field goals. They shot 31.6% from the field, 46.7% from deep and 58.3% at the free-throw line.
Redlands has a quick turnaround with their next game coming in conference play at the University of La Verne this Saturday, December 31 with tipoff set for 2:00pm.