Friday, March 19
Fort Worth, Tex.
6 PM
California Baptist University
25-0,14-0WAC
90
vs
85
New Mexico
15-5,11-3Mountain West
1
2
3
4
F
California Baptist
16
22
30
22
90
New Mexico
21
22
22
20
85
Women’s Basketball Downs New Mexico For Program’s First WNIT Win
3/19/2021 10:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball
FORT WORTH – In one of its most tightly contested games of the season, California Baptist University women's basketball battled the University of New Mexico to a 90-85 victory in the opening round of the Fort Worth Regional in the Women's National Invitation Tournament Friday night.
The win marks CBU's first national D1 postseason victory in the same season as its first Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships. The Lancers improve to 25-0 on the season and extend the nation's longest win-streak to 28 games in a row.
Familiar names led the way for the Lancers as Ane Olaeta, Britney Thomas, and Caitlyn Harper each filled the stat sheet in a manner rarely seen by all three in the same game. The same three players that combined for seven WAC Player of the Week awards, along with multiple conference regular-season accolades, came together to score over 64 percent of the team's points.
Olaeta scored 11 points but dished out a career-high 14 assists, nine of which came in the second half as CBU mounted its comeback. Olaeta just missed out on her first career triple-double, finishing just three rebounds shy.
"I think we were just a little tight earlier. We tried to create passes that weren't there," coach Olson said after the game. "In the second half, we did a much better job of just letting the ball move and taking the angle when it was there. Not trying to force it and just making easy plays. Those easy plays added up to big plays."
A much looser Lancer squad took the floor in the second half and success was bred from just playing the game.
"We're just really happy to continue to keep playing meaningful basketball. It's a really fun team to coach. Several of the girls have said it's the most fun team they have ever played on. We're really thankful that we get to come back and keep playing with something on the line," Olson added.
"We knew going in that we've been a really good defensive team all year, but we knew this was going to be a really hard team to guard. It became pretty clear in about the first 10 to 15 minutes that we are just going to have to try to outscore them, which is never really a great strategy, but we were able to pull it off tonight," said Olson.
Possibly the most telling stat of the game was the Lancers' ability to shut down UNM's three-point attack. New Mexico came into the game shooting the long-ball at a 33.5 percent clip and making nearly 10 per game, but CBU held it to just eight threes tonight on 25.8 percent shooting.
The Dons own a winning record of 16-10 on the season and 10-7 in their West Coast Conference run, but they have built that record on a thin margin of error as their average margin of victory is just 3.3 points per game. USF shoots a much higher percentage from beyond the arc than it does from the field as a whole, 35.1% compared to 25.9% respectively. It likely leads to the Lancers' three-point defensive prowess being tested for a second game in a row.
Saturday night's game will again be played at 6 p.m. PST and can be seen via FloHoops.com with a subscription purchase or heard for through the CBU Radio Network. The broadcast is on air locally in the Inland Empire on Fox Sports AM 1350, also available through the iHeartRadio app as well as at CBULancers.com/listenWNIT.
The win marks CBU's first national D1 postseason victory in the same season as its first Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships. The Lancers improve to 25-0 on the season and extend the nation's longest win-streak to 28 games in a row.
Familiar names led the way for the Lancers as Ane Olaeta, Britney Thomas, and Caitlyn Harper each filled the stat sheet in a manner rarely seen by all three in the same game. The same three players that combined for seven WAC Player of the Week awards, along with multiple conference regular-season accolades, came together to score over 64 percent of the team's points.
Head Coach Jarrod Olson praised his team after the game saying, "We had some great individual performances. Thomas and Harper combined for 47 points between the two of them. That was pretty amazing. We had 30 assists as a team. It's a big win for us, winning our first game in a postseason tournament and being able to advance to the second round."
⚔️9️⃣0️⃣-8️⃣5️⃣🐺
Ane Olaeta dishes a new career-high 14 assists as Britney Thomas and Caitlyn Harper combined for 47 points to earn CBU's first @WomensNIT victory! San Francisco is on deck tomorrow night at 6 pm PST!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/oaS9Td8Bex— California Baptist WBB 1️⃣9️⃣✖️🔥➕✂️➕🔥🔥🔥➕✂️➕🔥 (@CBUwbb) March 20, 2021
Olaeta scored 11 points but dished out a career-high 14 assists, nine of which came in the second half as CBU mounted its comeback. Olaeta just missed out on her first career triple-double, finishing just three rebounds shy.
Thomas notched a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds and scoring 16 of her 22 points in the second half, all while shooting an incredible 10-11 (90.9 percent) from the field and draining a pair of and-one free throws. Harper had a team-high 25 points and added nine rebounds and two huge blocks.
Ane Olaeta... Your unofficial @ncaawbb leader in assists per game.#LanceUp⚔️ | #WNIT | #ncaaw pic.twitter.com/PQ5WXejU08— California Baptist WBB 1️⃣9️⃣✖️🔥➕✂️➕🔥🔥🔥➕✂️➕🔥 (@CBUwbb) March 20, 2021
Tiena Neale, Brittany Klaman and Taylor Wu all chipped in nine points and combined to drain eight of the team's 11 three-pointers in the game.
Here they come! The Lancers take the lead for the first time tonight!#LanceUp⚔️ | #WNIT | #ncaaw pic.twitter.com/YGEAbpzM0m— California Baptist WBB 1️⃣9️⃣✖️🔥➕✂️➕🔥🔥🔥➕✂️➕🔥 (@CBUwbb) March 20, 2021
The Lancers trailed by five at halftime, but were +10 in the second half. A noticeable factor in that halftime deficit was CBU's lack of ownership with the ball as it committed 10 turnovers in the first half.
Brittany Klaman drills the 3⃣🏀#LanceUp⚔️ | #WNIT | #ncaaw pic.twitter.com/QKNINN4gjI— California Baptist WBB 1️⃣9️⃣✖️🔥➕✂️➕🔥🔥🔥➕✂️➕🔥 (@CBUwbb) March 20, 2021
"I think we were just a little tight earlier. We tried to create passes that weren't there," coach Olson said after the game. "In the second half, we did a much better job of just letting the ball move and taking the angle when it was there. Not trying to force it and just making easy plays. Those easy plays added up to big plays."
A much looser Lancer squad took the floor in the second half and success was bred from just playing the game.
"We're just really happy to continue to keep playing meaningful basketball. It's a really fun team to coach. Several of the girls have said it's the most fun team they have ever played on. We're really thankful that we get to come back and keep playing with something on the line," Olson added.
The Lancers had to work all 40 minutes of tonight's game as their largest lead was just seven and didn't come until there was 24 seconds left in the game. As a team, CBU assisted on 30 of 36 made field goals while also dominating on the glass, outrebounding the Lobos 45-34 during the game.🗣️ Ane Olaeta joined @braidenbellpxp for a postgame interview after the Lancers' opening round win over the Mountain West Conference regular season champion New Mexcio at the @WomensNIT.#LanceUp⚔️ | #WNIT | #ncaaw pic.twitter.com/GMZcifxIP2
— California Baptist WBB 1️⃣9️⃣✖️🔥➕✂️➕🔥🔥🔥➕✂️➕🔥 (@CBUwbb) March 20, 2021
"We knew going in that we've been a really good defensive team all year, but we knew this was going to be a really hard team to guard. It became pretty clear in about the first 10 to 15 minutes that we are just going to have to try to outscore them, which is never really a great strategy, but we were able to pull it off tonight," said Olson.
Possibly the most telling stat of the game was the Lancers' ability to shut down UNM's three-point attack. New Mexico came into the game shooting the long-ball at a 33.5 percent clip and making nearly 10 per game, but CBU held it to just eight threes tonight on 25.8 percent shooting.
The stakes grow much more serious now that the Lancers advance into the winner's bracket of the WNIT, as it now becomes a single-elimination competition. CBU now has a tilt with the University of San Francisco on deck Saturday night as the Dons defeated the University of Houston prior to the Lancers game, holding on for a 71-63 win over the Cougars. The winner gets a meeting with the winner of Rice/Fresno State in Monday night's regional final.🏀GAMETIME🏀#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/O6JsBRqUP4
— California Baptist WBB 1️⃣9️⃣✖️🔥➕✂️➕🔥🔥🔥➕✂️➕🔥 (@CBUwbb) March 20, 2021
The Dons own a winning record of 16-10 on the season and 10-7 in their West Coast Conference run, but they have built that record on a thin margin of error as their average margin of victory is just 3.3 points per game. USF shoots a much higher percentage from beyond the arc than it does from the field as a whole, 35.1% compared to 25.9% respectively. It likely leads to the Lancers' three-point defensive prowess being tested for a second game in a row.
Saturday night's game will again be played at 6 p.m. PST and can be seen via FloHoops.com with a subscription purchase or heard for through the CBU Radio Network. The broadcast is on air locally in the Inland Empire on Fox Sports AM 1350, also available through the iHeartRadio app as well as at CBULancers.com/listenWNIT.
Updated Fort Worth Regional Bracket#LanceUp⚔️ | #WNIT | #ncaaw pic.twitter.com/hlUzImPTpv— California Baptist WBB 1️⃣9️⃣✖️🔥➕✂️➕🔥🔥🔥➕✂️➕🔥 (@CBUwbb) March 20, 2021
Team Stats
CBU
UNM
FG%
.537
.421
3FG%
.393
.258
FT%
.636
.650
RB
45
34
TO
17
6
STL
4
13
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
25
FGM
10
3FGM
2
FTM
3
Pts
22
FGM
10
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
W
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
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