LA MIRADA, Calif. – The CUI women's basketball team defeated Biola after going into overtime!
In the final regular season away game the two PacWest Eagle teams provided an exciting match up as the final score was 72-64. CUI won the first three quarters but fell just short in the fourth which allowed Biola to make a quick comeback to tie the game up at the end of the fourth which led to an additional five minutes of play.
"Honestly this was a great team win," said
Katie Timmerman. "Everyone came out ready to play and ready for their moments, which is telling based on the scoring spread with multiple people with 8+ points. We moved the ball extremely well, stayed together through all the adversity, and persevered as a collective unit until the end. We grew a lot today as a team and today shows how dangerous we can be in the future. Every practice we challenge our bodies and push ourselves past fatigue so going into overtime didn't faze us because we knew we were built for it."
Kennedy Fulcher broke the seal in overtime as she scored the first two points when she received a nice pass from
Edina Del Rosario. Less than a minute later Biola gets a trey ball to go and Biola held the lead at 64-63. Timmerman worked her way into the paint and got a floating jump shot to fall giving the lead back to CUI at 65-64. Biola tried to score but it was no good and Green and Gold had possession again. A missed CUI three-point attempt led to Fulcher getting her third offensive rebound of the night with just two seconds left on the shot clock. Fulcher got the ball to
Savannah Felix-Amoroso who knocked down a layup to increase CUI's lead to 67-64. Biola got off two more three-point attempts but could not get them to fall. Timmerman wasted some time on the clock then pulled up into an NBA three and knocked it down with confidence sending a dagger into Biola as she secured the game with 24 seconds left.
"I let my instincts and muscle memory take over" said Timmerman. "I saw both defenders were sunk well below the three-point line and knew that was the read before I started attacking. Initially I was surprised as to how far they sunk but they had to respect Mick (
Michaela VanderKlugt) at the high post since she's hit that clutch shot numerous times. As a result, it just opened up the floor that much more for me to knock down the shot."
Biola failed to score again and Timmerman knocked down two free throws at the end resulting in the final score of 72-64.
"This was a big win because it was a growth one," said Head Coach
Christine Collins-Kiernan. "We showed resilience in Biola's runs and stuck together. I had to do very little of the coaching because they handled so much of it on the floor, that wasn't happening two weeks ago."
Timmerman led the Eagles as she scored her new career high of 32 points! She also earned five assists and two steals. Timmerman shot an extraordinary 50% from the field and three-point line as well as 100% from behind the line.
"My goal for Katie since her freshman year was to take a hard-working perfectionist and transition her into a free playing confident athlete," said Collins-Kiernan. "Katie puts in hours upon hours into her game and has gotten so good at developing her growth mindset this season. She is stacking 'failure' lessons and using them to springboard her into successes and that has been incredibly fun to watch as her coach."
Fulcher showed her consistency once again as she earned her fourth double-double this season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. She also added three assists, two blocks, and team high four steals!
"We changed up our defense," said Fulcher. "So, my main focus was communicating with my teammates and trying to block out my area to get defensive rebounds. I think all of the work that we put in pre-season as well as our continued training has allowed me to be so consistent this season."
VanderKlugt dominated the boards as she came away with 16 total rebounds. She also added nine points and five assists. Felix-Amoroso added eight points, three assists, and team high three blocks for the Eagles. Del Rosario also contributed eight points, three steals, and dished out five assists!
The Eagles are currently 7-6 and looking to make that win column go up one more as they host their final PacWest Conference game on Feb. 27 at 2:00 p.m. against Biola.
#CUITogether
