SAN MARCOS – The No. 12/17 Cal State San Marcos women’s basketball team (1-0) led wire-to-wire in its season opener against Point Loma (0-3), defeating the Sea Lions 77-51 on Tuesday night in The Sports Center.
TOP PERFORMERS
Charity Gallegos – 17 points | 6-of-11 FG | 5-of-6 FT | 3 steals | 2 assists
Kelsey Forrester – 15 points | 6-of-11 FG | 2 steals
Kate Carlson – 12 points | 5 rebounds
Dynnah Buckner – 9 points | 7 rebounds
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Cougars came out hot, scoring nine unanswered points to take an 11-2 run capped by a Forrester fast-break layup off a turnover at the 6:57 mark in the first quarter.
CSUSM was up 23-9 following the first quarter after shooting 58.8% (10-of-17) from the field.
The CSUSM defense held PLNU to just one field goal in the second quarter as the Sea Lions went 1-of-11 (9.1%) from the field and 0-of-6 from behind the 3-point line.
The Cougars took a 40-17 lead into the halftime break with Forrester leading all scorers with 13 points.
CSUSM took its biggest lead of the first half on Katie FitzGerald’s 3-pointer with three seconds remaining in the second quarter.
With 1:54 on the clock, the Cougars extended their lead to 27 points (52-25) on a pair of made free throws by Carlson.
Gallegos scored eight of her 17 points in the final 10 minutes of the game, sinking a pair of three pointers.
FAST BREAKS
CSUSM outscored PLNU in each quarter with the opening quarter having the largest margin of 14 points.
The Cougars scored 18 points off turnovers and fast breaks in addition to 40 points in the paint.
CSUSM outrebounded PLNU 45-38 with four Cougars registering five or more rebounds.
The Cougars ended the game shooting 45.6% (31-of-68) from the field while holding the Sea Lions to 34.0% (17-of-50).
CSUSM only went to the free throw line seven times, making five of them while PLNU shot 50% (15-of-30) from the charity stripe.
With Tuesday’s win, CSUSM extended its win streak to four games and is 8-5 in the all-time series against PLNU.
The Cougars have won their season opener three consecutive seasons (excluding the cancelation of 2020-21 season due to the pandemic) and have won their home opener in each of their last four seasons.
Prior to the game, three seniors from last year’s CSUSM women’s basketball team – Samantha Custodio, Akayla Hackson and Dominque Hernandez – unveiled the 2021-22 CCAA Regular-Season Championship banner in The Sports Center.
Head Coach Renee Jimenez sat down with @JonathanRifkind following the Cougars’ season-opening 77-51 win over Point Loma. #BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/tKVXYlDOzF
– CSUSM Women’s Basketball (@CSUSM_WBB) November 16, 2022
UP NEXT
The Cougars will travel to Washington this weekend to compete in the 2022 West Region Crossover hosted by Western Washington. CSUSM will take on Seattle Pacific at 11 a.m. on Friday before facing the host WWU on Saturday at 1 p.m.
