CHICAGO – The Chicago State women's basketball team dropped a 80-65 contest to California Baptist on Wednesday night at the Jones Convocation Center. The Cougars were led by
Ines Mata Boix (Madrid, Spain/) who tallied a game-high 24 points and 13 rebounds, to lead all scorers.
Alexandria Cliff (Manitowoc, Wis./Roncalli) was also in double figures with 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Cougars (1-19, 1-6 WAC) kept the game close in the first half and had an excellent start to the game jumping out to an early 5-1 lead with just a minute off the game clock. The teams battled back-and-forth for the majority of the quarter with neither team taking more than a two possession lead the entire first stanza.
California Baptist (9-10, 1-4 WAC) put some distance between the teams opening the second quarter with a 5-0 spurt to extend their lead to eight points. With California Baptist leading 19-28 midway through the quarter the Cougars used a 6-0 run, with five points coming from Mata Boix, to get the Lancer lead back to a single possession with 3:17 left.
That was as close as they would get the remainder of the half as California Baptist closed the half on a 9-3 run to take a double digit lead into the break.
The Cougars capitalized on Lancer miscues, scoring 11 first-half points off turnovers.
The second half saw the Lancers lead grow to as much as 25 points, as they shot 62.5 percent in the third quarter en route to the victory.
Chicago State will take some time off and will hit the hardwood again on Feb. 1. when they hit the road for a two-game swing starting at Kansas City on Feb. 1. Tipoff will be at 2 pm from Kansas City. The Cougars will end the road trip with a trip to New Mexico State on Feb. 6.
