The University of Antelope Valley Women’s Basketball team faced off against Cal State Fullerton for a nail-biting end-of-the-year match.

UAV’s strong performances versus Division 1 teams this season has caught the attention of many. No program will take the Pioneers lightly and the Titans were no exception on Saturday afternoon. Fullerton started the game strong on an 11-0 run. The Pioneers could not buy a basket in the 1st and 2nd quarters as they shot about 15% for the half. The Titans took a commanding 38 to 14 lead at the break.

Coming out of halftime, UAV was not ready to give up and kept their shooter’s mentality when shots finally started falling for them in the 3rd quarter. The Pioneers would come back from a 26-point deficit to make it game through the closing moments. With 3:56 left to play in the third quarter and Fullerton leading 45-21, UAV manufactured a 16-2 run over the near four-minute span to cut Fullerton’s lead to 47-37 at the end of the period after an Ahteana Jones’ steal and three-pointer at the buzzer put an exclamation on the run. During that stretch, the Pioneers’ fullcourt pressure forced six Titan miscues.

In the final quarter, Fullerton scored first, but UAV ran on all cylinders to manufacture a 16-6 run to make it a 2-point game at 55-53 lead with just over two minutes to play in the game. Fullerton went on a 6-3 burst over the next minute to take a five-point lead. The Titans then hit 3-of-4 free throws in the game’s final 12 seconds to steal the victory 64 to 56.

In the second half, UAV outscored Fullerton 42-26 and the Titans committed 16 second-half turnovers which led to 26 points for the Pioneers. UAV also grabbed 27 offensive rebounds, but the Titans and Pioneers were even scoring 13 second-chance points apiece for the game.

Ahteana Jones led the Pioneers with 16 points, while Tylen Price poured in 13 off the bench and Ashley Ensminger added 12.

“We started the game slow and were forcing shots that we didn’t need to take,” said UAV Women’s Head Coach Jason Pruitt. “I’m proud of the way our team fought back, but unfortunately we had dug ourselves into too deep of a hole. As a new program we have been very blessed to compete in these NCAA Division 1 & 2 exhibition games. We are excited to get back to work at practice and are looking forward to implementing the things we’ve learned in our conference game on Thursday.”

UAV Women’s Basketball will dive right into Cal Pac Conference play on January 5th at 5:30pm versus Pacific Union College (0-9, 0-2 Cal Pac) at home at the Pioneer Event Center. Click here to access the game link.

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