The California State University, Los Angeles Golden Eagles proved to be too much for the San Francisco State women’s basketball team Friday night, as the Eagles beat the Gators 68-61 in the Purple Out game.
The Gators looked good in the first half, as eight points from Tyiteyana Jefferson in the first 10 minutes of the game gave the team a 13-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. Their defense was smothering for the first quarter as well.
The game started to sneak away from SF State in the second quarter. After continuing to play well early into the second quarter, the Golden Eagles went on a run to tie the game at 20 a little over halfway through the quarter. They ended up outscoring the Gators 21-11 in the second quarter to take a 30-24 halftime lead.
The Gators showed life in the third quarter as Jhaina Stephens scored most of her team-high 21 points in the second half. This helped them close the gap to as few as a two point Golden Eagles lead a couple times in the quarter.
However, the fourth quarter saw Cal State LA put some breathing room between them and SF State. The Gators fought the deficit for much of the quarter, closing the gap to two points at the halfway mark of the quarter after Courtenay Brown hit one of her four three pointers.
In the end, Los Angeles’ free throw shooting was too strong, which allowed them to put the game out of reach in the final minutes.
SF State head coach, Kristina Danella, felt the team needed to focus more on being consistent.
“When we execute the way we are supposed to and know how to, we can score in a variety of ways,” Danella said. “When we set solid screens and cut hard, we get great shots, and we need to learn to do that for 40 minutes.”
Senior guard Erika Nilsen echoed a similar sentiment.
“We realized that we could come out really strong, but we just have to make sure that we keep that intensity for the entire game,” Nilsen said.
The Gators certainly played well for stretches of the game, but also struggled to score.
“We need to have been focus[ing] on the opponent’s tendencies when doing scouting,” Danella said.
The Gators will have a chance to improve their scouting tonight, when they take on California State University, Dominguez Hills.
