LAS VEGAS, Nev. (12/22/16) – The Arkansas State women's basketball team concluded its three-game stretch at the Puerto Rico Classic (in Lase Vegas) with a 80-55 loss to California at South Point Arena Wednesday evening.
Dominique Oliver led the Red Wolves (2-10) with 16 points and tied a career-high with six steals, while Jada Ford finished in double-figures for the fourth straight game with 14 points. A-State struggled to score throughout most of the evening despite getting open looks and finished just 18-of-57 (31.6 percent) from the field, while the Golden Bears finished the night 35-of-62 (56.5 percent). Kristine Anigwe led the way for Cal (12-0) with 39 points and 16 rebounds.
“I'll take this effort any day of the week,” A-State head coach Brian Boyer said. “The effort tonight was really good and it was probably one of the better jobs we have done at trying to execute what we wanted to get done and we didn't always do it but you could there was a real effort to try and do it the right way.”
Cal showed its dominance on the inside from the get-go and scored 62 of their 80 points from the painted area, while keeping Arkansas State from finding any space inside on the offensive end of the floor. The Red Wolves finished with 12 paint points, but found success from the outside and knocked eight, 3-pointers, including four from Oliver.
A-State never led in the game and trailed by 17 with 4:01 remaining in the opening half, but a Madison Heckert layup brought a new energy to floor for the Red Wolves as the team worked the deficit down to 39-30 with 45 to go. Starr Taylor played a key role during the come back and scored four points, including a pair of free throws to get the within single digits.
Cal answered with seven straight points to start the third quarter to take a 48-30 lead and continued to hurt the Red Wolves with its size in the paint and pushed the advantage to its largest point at 65-37 with 2:44 left in the third period.
A-State will return home to open Sun Belt Conference play when it takes on Louisiana-Monroe at the Convocation Center on Dec. 29 at 7 p.m.
For the latest on the A-State women's basketball log onto the team's Facebook page at Facebook.com/RedWolvesWBB, or follow them on Twitter @AStateWB and on Instagram at “AStateWBB.”
