SAN BERNARDINO--- Cal State San Bernardino held on to defeat the visiting SF State Gators 63-56 this afternoon in a CCAA match-up at San Bernardino's Coussoulis Arena. Eisha Sheppard led the way for the Coyotes with 22 points and was one of three players in double digits for CSU San Bernardino. Lauren Varney (Oak Park, California, Oak Park HS)paced the Gators with a season high 16 points.

“We lacked the effort in the second half to finish the game off,” said SF State head coach Joaquin Wallace. “Hopefully we can play well at home this next week.”

SF State (1-8, 1-4 CCAA) jumped out to a 19-12 lead in the first half. The visitors increased their lead to 26-18 on a three by Erica Greer (Pomona, California, Diamond Ranch HS) with just 3:24 left in the first half. CSU San Bernardino went on a 6-2 run in the final three minutes to cut into the Gator lead, 28-24 going into halftime.

The Gators came out in the second half outscoring their hosts 8-6 to take a 36-30 lead on a lay-up by Michaela Booker (Union City,California, James Logan High School), but Cal State San Bernardino took its irst lead at the 8:26 mark of the second half on Sheppard's jumper to take a 48-46 lead.

They increased that lead to 55-48 on another jumper by Sheppard with a little over six to go and never looked back.

Besides Sheppard's 22 points, Danielle Shows chipped in 15 while Sabrina Gonzalez added 12 points. The Coyotes (7-1, 3-1 CCAA) held the Gators to just 30% shooting from the field and forced 20 turnovers by their opponents.

Varney shot 6 of 13 from the field and had 7 rebounds for the Gators while Dominique Hunter (San Francisco, California, Gateway) recorded her fifth double-double by scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. She also had three blocked shots.

The Gators will begin a three-game home stand on Tuesday with a 5:30pm showdown with Cal State Monterey Bay. 

Box Score