California Baptist University
*Hope International
GOTTA HAVE A FISIIKAVA
1/9/2007 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Although she had 18 points to her credit, the 5-foot-10 forward was beat on a spin move by Hope International's Sarah Nylander with just 1.4 seconds left on the clock. But, somehow, Fisiikava was able to recover in time to go and break up what looked to be a game-changing 2 points for Nylander and the Royals.
The bucket would have put Hope International on top in the game's waning seconds, but instead, the Lancers held on for an 80-79 win?their first in Golden State Athletic Conference play this year.
California Baptist improves to 9-6, 1-5, as Hope International falls to 7-7, 2-4.
“Jessica's play was huge in the course of this game,” said California Baptist head coach Steve Sain. “She made a great recovery to get to Nylander and knock it away. It was a big-time stop.”
Ahead by a score of 75-67 after Bryana Williams scored from her own rebound with 5:39 on the clock, the Lancers held an 80-73 advantage, following an Adaobi Gwacham layup with 2:52 left.
After Allison Wulff (14 points, 9 rebounds) answered Gwacham with a layup that made the score 80-75, Hope International brought the game to within 3, at 80-77, when Malerie Rodrigues knocked down a layup with 2:18 on the clock.
The Lancers missed a pair of shots to give the ball to the Royals with just under a minute on the clock, and Nylander (15 points) converted the opportunity to make it an 80-79 game.
California Baptist survived its only 2 missed free-throws of the half in the game's final 30 seconds, but they also allowed only one field-goal attempt during that timeframe?a last-second shot from Rodrigues.
“That buffer that we were able to build early in the second half was key for us,” said Sain. “We've been starting out slowly in the second half so far in conference, but tonight, we came out with more intensity and were able to give ourselves that cushion.”
The Lancers came out for the second half down 37-34, but started the second half on a 9-0 run, featuring 4 points by Williams.
The Lancers shot an abysmal 3-for-15 (.200) from the charity stripe in the opening half, and trailed by 9 following Nylander's 3-pointer to make the score 23-14 with over 8 minutes left on the clock.
Erin Greenberg's 3-pointer at 17:23 put the first points on the scoreboard for either team, and Nylander buried the Royals' first field goal to make the score 4-3 at 15:38.
Wulff scored 10 points and hauled off 6 boards for the Royals, who buried on 12-of-14 free throws in the first half.
Fisiikava scored 12 of her team's 34 first-half points, including 10 of the Lancers' first 19 points. Including
Nicole Davis ended with a team-high 19 points and also dealt out 3 assists for the Lancers, while Jasmine Nault scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds for the Royals.
