SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco State women's basketball team dropped its Friday night contest 68-61 to visiting Cal State Los Angeles in the Gators' CCAA home opener.
Jhaina Stephens notched her third-straight double-double of the year with a season-high 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Courtenay Brown added 14 points of her own while
Tyiteyana Jefferson registered ten points and four boards.
Rachel Iozzia dished nine assists, just two shy of tying her season-high.
Jefferson scored the first six points of the contest for the Gators (2-3/0-2 CCAA). Brown added a three with just under three minutes to go to put SF State up 11-7. Stephens joined the scoring party with a nice layup through traffic, however Kassie Kruger answered the other way to inch closer as the hosts carried a 13-9 advantage after the first quarter.
Brown dropped a three to open up the second quarter. The Golden Eagles (3-6/2-1 CCAA) put together a 6-0 run to tie it at 20-20 highlighted by Rebecca DiRegolo's pair of baskets, and then took the lead on a pair of free throws my Christine Delapina. Jefferson's layup the other way ended the streak and tied the game again at 22-22. Cal State Los Angeles continued to roll in their 21-point quarter to carry a 30-24 lead into the break.
Stephens converted another layup to begin the second half and added another a minute later to bring the Gators within three. The back-and-forth continued with
Kaleigh Pugh dropping a layup to make it a two-point game at 38-36, but Neele Steinort went right back from beyond the arc to extend the Golden Eagle advantage. Cal State closed out the period with a jumper with 29 seconds remaining to bring their lead back up by three, 43-40.
The Gators kept the pressure in the final ten minutes, however the visitors never looked back en route to the key road conference win. Cal State Los Angeles took a ten-point lead at just over a minute to go.
Jacqueline Moss hit a jumper to start the comeback and Brown followed with her fourth triple of the game in the closing minutes, and
Amani Alexander went coast-to-coast in the final possession with the layup to make it 68-61.
Up Next
The Gators wrap up the home stand tomorrow against Cal State Dominguez Hills at 5:30 p.m. in the first part of a doubleheader at The Swamp. Live stats and video for the contest will be provided, and be sure to follow
@sfstate_wbb for in-game updates.
