ARCATA – In their regular-season home finale, all four Humboldt State women's basketball seniors scored in double figures as the Jacks pounded the Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes 87-65 on Saturday night in Lumberjack Arena and secured a spot in the CCAA Tournament.

With the win the Jacks improve to 16-6 overall, 14-4 in California Collegiate Athletic Association play.  The Coyotes fall to 12-11, 8-10 in conference action.

Box Score

Brittney Taylor, Andrea Bobic, Paige Peterson and Luiza Osborne combined to score 64 of the Jacks 87 points.  Taylor, Bobic and Peterson scored 26, 11 and 12 points respectively.  Osborne saved the biggest scoring night of her career for Senior Night, pouring in 15 points and grabbing six rebounds.  Bobic set a career high in assist, seven, and led the team with nine rebounds.

CSUSB jumped out to a 19-13 lead in the first seven minutes behind the sharpshooting of Amanda Ragains who had three 3-pointers and would finish the game with 18 points, the Coyotes leading scorer.

“We have been watching film on ourselves when we were playing really lackluster,” Osborne said.  “We realized that early on we were falling into the same pattern and that is when we said we had to kick it into gear and start to make plays.”

And kick it into gear they did.  HSU went on a 35-9 run over the final 12:35 and took a 48-28 lead in to the locker room.

Osborne led the scoring with 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range and Taylor was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field for 11 points.

The Jacks used stifling defense.  They held Krystal Urzua, the CCAA's fourth-leading scorer, with out a point for the first twenty minutes.  HSU forced seven turnovers and scored 12 points off those Coyote mistakes.

For the half the Jacks shot 55 percent from the floor and 67 percent from behind the arc.

“They are a good attacking team,” head coach Joddie Gleason said.  “They find Urzua and Ragains on the perimeter.  At halftime we talked about stopping Ragains from getting so many good looks.”

It worked.

In the second half Ragains had just four points and Urzua eight.

The Jacks maintained their lead by pounding it inside to Taylor.  She was 6-of-9 from the field in the second half and 3-of-5 from the line.

“By watching film and from what we experienced earlier in the season,” Gleason said, “we knew they would play behind Brittney.  When we got the ball into her, defensive help would come.  We felt that if we moved the ball more, when we did go into her, the help would be further away and she could exert her will.  If they did come at her she can find the open player.”

HSU outscored the Coyotes in the paint 24-to-6 in the second half as well as 10-to-4 on second chance points.  They out rebounded CSUSB 49-to-31 for the game.

The Jacks extended their lead to as many as 26 points in the second half and never allowed CSUSB to get any closer than 17.

"It feels really good to get this kind of strong win on such an important night for all the seniors,” Peterson said. 

“They (the seniors) are the heart and soul of our team,” Gleason added.  “We go where they take us.  If they are not playing well we tend to struggle.  They all had good games tonight and it is a tribute to them.

“We are now playing a lot of teams that are vying to get into the CCAA Tournament and we need to keep bringing this type of intensity. These last four games will be huge.”