SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans women's basketball team couldn't overcome a large first half deficit as the Titans fell 78-to-58 against future Big West opponents Sacramento State on Friday night at the Hornet Pavilion.
The Hornets led by thirty points at halftime, 50-20 which proved to be a tough barrier to overcome for the Titans who outscored the Hornets 38-to-28 in the second half. In three of the Titans losses so far this season, they outscored their opponents in the second half. Â
Kya Pearson had her best game offensively as she led the Titans with 18 points along with 5 steals.  Pearson was the only Titans in double figures.    The Hornets had three figures in double figures with Rubi Gray dropping 26 points against the Titans.  The Hornets shot 50% from the field (30-for-60) for the game while the Titans shot just 32% (22-for-69).  The Hornets forced more turnovers the Titans (20-to-18) and the Hornets converted those to 22 points while the Titans only scored 13 points off turnovers. The Hornets also had more steals than the Titans with a 17-to-12 difference. The Titans outrebounded the Hornets 42-to-36 for the game as the Titans grabbed 23 offensive boards.  However, they only converted those for 16 second chance points.Â
The game quickly got away from the Titans in the first quarter. Â After a
Cristina Jones lay tied the game at 4-4 with 7:49 left in the first, the Hornets went on a 18-0 scoring run to take a 22-4 lead with 2:17 left in the period.Â
Maxine Sutisna broke the scoring drought but the Hornets led 28-to-6 after the first quarter.
The Hornets stretched their lead to up 30 points in the second quarter as they led 50-to-20 after the first 20 minutes. The Hornets were shooting 60% in the first half (21-for-35) while Rubi Gray scored 19 of her 26 points in the first half. The Titans turned the ball over 13 times in the first quarter which led to 20 points for the Hornets.
The Titans played their best basketball of the game in the third quarter as they outscored the Hornets 22-to-14.  The Hornets cooled off shooting in the third quarter as the Titans defense held them to 26.7% shooting.  The Titans went on mini scoring runs throughout the quarter as they were able to respond to every Hornet scoring possession. The Titans went on a 12-4 scoring run midway through the period to bring the lead down to 20 points.
The Hornets led 64-42 after the third quarter.
The Titans outscored the Hornets 16-to-14 in the final frame. The Titans had back-to-back three pointers from
Basak Orhan and
Kya Pearson to start the quarter. Â
The Titans trimmed the lead to as much as 17 points as
Kya Pearson led the Titans effort by scoring 11 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter. Â
The Titans will remain in NorCal for the weekend as they travel to Stockton on Sunday to take on Pacific. Â Tip-off is set for 2:00 p.m.
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Fans can purchase tickets for various Cal State Fullerton athletic events by visiting FullertonTitanstickets.com. The Athletic Ticket Office can also be contacted by phone at 657-278-2783 or by email at athletictixs@fullerton.edu.
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Titans fans can now watch every home event exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Titan Stadium. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.Â
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