STOCKTON, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans women's basketball team earned their second win of the season after defeating the Pacific Tigers 68-56 on Sunday afternoon at the Alex G.Spanos Center to close out a three game road trip.
The Titans faced a manageable deficit after only trailing by five at halftime, 33-28. The Titans outscored the Tigers 40 to 23 in the second half. The Titans have outscored their opponents in the second half in five of their six games this year. Â
Nicole Steiner led the Titans with her second double-double of the season. She led all scorers with 22 points and hauled in 11 boards. Â
Cristina Jones picked up a double-double with 15 points and 10 steals and also had seven boards. Â
Dylan Swindle in her first career start had 13 points. Â The Titans had their best shooting game against an NCAA opponent so far this season after shooting 40% from the floor. Â They held the Tigers to 32.7% shooting. Â The Titans still struggled from beyond the arc after going 2-for-13. Â The Titans were an efficient 72% (18-for-25) from the charity stripe. The trademark Titans defense forced 33 turnovers and the Titans which led to only 22 points. Â The Titans dominated the scoring inside the paint with a 38-to-18 advantage. Â Â
The first quarter was completely opposite from Friday's match against Sac State. Â The Titans led 19-to-12 after the first quarter.
Nicole Steiner set the tone early as she scored the first two baskets for the Titans. Â
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The Titans went on a 9-0 scoring run midway through the first to take a 15-7 lead the Tigers.
Dylan Swindle capped off the scoring in the first after draining a triple to give the Titans a seven-point lead after the first.
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After forcing 11 turnovers in the first quarter against Pacific, the Tigers only had 5 turnovers in the first. Â They outscored the Titans 21-to-9 for the period.Â
Nicole Steiner had seven of the Titans nine points in the quarter.Â
After the score was tied 23-to-23 midway through the period. Â The Tigers outscored the Titans 10-to-5 over the final five minutes to take a 33-28 lead into halftime.
The Titans came out of the halftime break strong as their defense forced 10 turnovers for the period.  The Titans quickly closed the deficit to a single possession.  The Tigers took a 5-point lead with 5:11 left in the quarter but the Titans responded with a fast break layup from Pearson to
Cristina Jones to keep the game close.
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The Titans outscored the Tigers 13-to-10 for the quarter as the Tigers led 43-41 after the first 30 minutes.
The Titans dominated the final quarter as they outscored the Tigers 27-to-13 and forced 8 turnovers and had seven steals.  The Titans went on a 10-2 run to start the fourth quarter and took a 51-45 lead.
The Titans were able to stretch their lead to 13 points after back-to-back baskets from
Kya Pearson,
Nicole Steiner, and
Jana Falsdottir. They led 64-51 with 1:59 left to play.
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Dylan Swindle was a perfect 4-for-4 down the stretch from the free throw line and 6-for-6 for the game to seal the win for the Titans.
For the Titans, it was their first win in Stockton since the 2010 season as they had been on a 5-game losing streak there.
The Titans have one game this week as they will host LMU on Saturday. Â Tip-off is set for 5:00 p.m. as a scheduled double-header with men's team who are taking on Pepperdine earlier that day at 2:00 PM inside Titan Gym.
SUPPORT THE TITANS!
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.
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
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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Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), X (@FullertonTitans) Instagram (@FullertonTitans). In addition, the women's basketball team has established its own XÂ (@FullertonWBB) and Instagram accounts (@FullertonWBB)
