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Kansas City
Cal State Fullerton
?Roos Unable To Overcome Hot Shooting Titans On New Year?s Eve
12/31/2014 4:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball
(Fullerton, Calif.) – With just eight players available on the bench, the short-handed Missouri-Kansas City women's basketball team battled for 40 minutes on New Year's Eve but was unable to come away with the victory, falling 72-52 to Cal State Fullerton at Titan Gym.
“The effort and fight from our team was tremendous,” Head Coach Marsha Frese said. “The energy, especially from the bench, carried over onto the floor. We definitely saw some of the light bulbs go off with the execution we are trying to get from them on the floor. Rebounding, though, continues to be a problem for us and something that we have to improve on if we want to stay in games.”
With the loss, UMKC falls to 2-11 on the season, while the Titans improve to 5-7 this year.
Calli White led the 'Roos in the loss, scoring 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-10 from three-point range, with team-high's of six assists and three steals, while Samantha Waldron added 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including hitting a perfect 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
“Like Coach Frese said, that's the best intensity we've had all season,” White said. “We fought really hard having the numbers that we had and came out with a high level of energy.”
In the opening half, the Titans struck first, but White answered for the 'Roos with her first two points of the game to tie the score at 2-2.
After a Kiana Law driving layup two possessions later, however Fullerton scored eight straight and 16 of the next 19 to extend the lead to 15 midway through the half.
CSUF pushed the lead to 17, before White cut the lead to 30-16 on her first three of the game.
Freshman Sierra Bone followed by scoring her first collegiate points two possessions later, but the Kangaroos would head into halftime trailing the Titans 38-20.
Coming out of the locker room, the Titans stretched the margin to 20, but threes by Waldron and White cut the lead to 49-35 with just over 12 minutes remaining.
Fullerton would answer the 'Roos run with a 9-2 stretch, which put the lead at 21, but with the margin at 20, Kiana Law knocked down back-to-back jumpers to cut it to 16 with 4:31 left to play.
UMKC, unfortunately, was unable to get any closer, as Cal State Fullerton extended their lead to 23 before coming away with the 72-52 win.
As a team, the 'Roos shot 41.2 percent from three-point range, while committing just 13 turnovers in the contest.
The Blue & Gold will continue their two-game California road swing when they open up 2015 at UC Riverside on Jan. 3 at 2 p.m. CT.
