REDLANDS, Calif. – Junior Julia Balestreri's (Pleasanton, Calif.) 18 points, 14 rebounds, and three blocks off the bench led the University of Redlands women's basketball team past the California Lutheran University Regals, 68-51, Saturday night inside Currier Gym.
The Bulldogs, who were back at 100% with their roster improve to 9-2, 5-0 SCIAC, while Cal Lutheran drops to 2-8, 0-5 SCIAC.
Four players recorded double figures and joining Balestreri was Angelina Roque (San Diego, CA) who added 16 points, five rebounds, and three assists, Alyssa Downs (South San Francisco, CA) who posted another 16 points and five rebounds and Chyanne Pagkalinawan (Valencia, CA) who made her return to the court with a 14-point, four rebound, four assist effort after missing the last two games.
It was a back and forth opening quarter as the Bulldogs and Regals each put up 16 points. Roque led the offensive effort pouring in eight of the first ten points of the game for the Maroon and Grey as they never led by more than two possessions. It was a low scoring 2nd Quarter with a combined 26 points being scored as the U of R took a two-point lead into the break. After trailing by three to start off the period, the Bulldogs used nine unanswered during a 14-2 run midway through thanks to a triple from Downs and a trio of layups from Roque and Balestreri giving Redlands an eight-point lead at 27-19. Downs connected on another deep three to make it a nine-point deficit soon after, but to close out the half CLU rallied with seven in a row, which included a half court shot made by Cameron Mallory that moved the score to 30-28.
Pagkalinawan opened the second half scoring for the Bulldogs with a three at the 8:11 mark. UR then carried that momentum to start a run that grew their lead to five, at 37-32. But down the stretch the Regals rallied with nine of the next eleven points to tie the game up on two different occasions before UR would finish off the period with a pair of free-throws from Downs and a jumper from Pagkalinawan.
A 9-2 run to open the fourth gave the Bulldogs their first double-digit lead of the game, 52-41, at the 7:40 mark. The Regals attempted a few comebacks that reduced the lead to single digits, but the Bulldogs held on thanks to a plus-thirteen advantage. Balestreri was dominant in the final quarter with 10 points, seven rebounds, and another block. The Bulldogs shot 56.3% from the field over the final ten minutes and held the Regals to 25% shooting.
Redlands finished the game shooting 40% from the field, 33% from behind the arc and 58% from the free-throw line. Despite the low shooting numbers their defense held tough limiting the Regals to 32.3% shooting and 27.8% from three-point territory. For the game UR attempted 14 more free throws than CLU, and were plus 10 on the glass, totaling 43 rebounds for the game, while adding 30 points in the paint and 10 second chance points.
The Bulldogs will have another short turnaround with their fourth game in a week as they will travel to Pomona-Pitzer (7-5, 5-1) Monday night, January 17 at 5:00pm.
