SAN FRANCISCO –The 21st ranked Grand Canyon Antelopes used a strong defensive second half to key their 60-38 victory over the SF State Gators this evening in the First Round of the CCAA/Pac West Challenge at San Francisco. The Antelopes (9-1) outscored the Gators 28-11 in the second half and held them to just 13% shooting.
"This game was a tale of two halves, as a young team we haven't found the ability to string two halves this season," said SF State Head Coach Joaquin Wallace. "However, you have to your hats off to Grand Canyon as they are a quality team."
The Gators (1-5) built a 16-8 lead in the first eight minutes of the game capped by a three-point play by
Michaela Booker (Union City,California, James Logan High School). Grand Canyon took the lead back at the 7:13 mark on two made free throws by Stevie Kamp as the Antelopes outscored the Gators 11-1. The visitors took a 32-27 lead in the locker room on a Rosalyn Nelson lay-up.
In the second half, the Antelopes outscored their visitors 13-2 in the first ten minutes to take a 45-29 lead and increased that lead to 23 (58-35) on a Joslynn Frazier lay-up with 1:24 to go in the game.
Samantha Murphy paced the Antelopes with a game high 15 points go along with her three assists and 5 rebounds. Grand Canyon also had 14 steals with four coming from Kristi Girdley while forcing 23 turnovers by the Gators.
Dominique Hunter (San Francisco, California, Gateway)recorded her third straight double-double scoring 10 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. Hunter also blocked four shots to become the school's all-time career leader in that category with 179 blocked shots in her career at SF State.
The Gators will face Notre Dame de Namur tomorrow evening at 7pm in the final game of the CCAA/Pac West Challenge while the Antelopes will take on Cal State Stanislaus at 4:30pm in game one of tomorrow's games.
In the first game this evening, Cal State Stanislaus (4-3) defeated Notre Dame de Namur (1-5) 81-80 in overtime behind Katie Busi's 18 points, 15 rebound performance. Katie Zalsy paced the Argonauts with 20 points.
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