Fort Collins – Senior guard Vanessa Espinoza scored 17 of her team-high 20 points in the second half Sunday as the Colorado State women’s basketball team snapped a two-game losing streak with an 81-66 victory over Northern Colorado at Moby Arena.
The Rams improved to 5-3 and extended their win streak over the Bears to 11 games.
After taking a 43-30 lead at halftime, the Rams were held without a field goal for a stretch of 5 minutes, 30 seconds, allowing the Bears to crawl back into the game at 50-47 with 14:37 to play.
The Rams, led by Espinoza, went on a 19-8 run to stretch their lead to 69-55 with 6:03 remaining and put the game out of reach.
“In today’s game, even when you are up by 13 (points), the game isn’t over yet,” CSU coach Jen Warden said. “They (the Bears) were still breathing down our neck until the end of the game.”
Also scoring in double figures for CSU were seniors Lindsay Thomas and Melissa Dennett, and sophomore Sara Hunter.
Thomas had a season-high 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the floor. Dennett narrowly missed her fifth double-double of the season with 15 points (5-of-9 field goals) and nine rebounds, to go along with four assists and two blocked shots. Hunter scored 11 points.
NORTHERN COLORADO (4-7)
Christopherson 1-4 0-0 3, Barbour 3-4 1-1 8, Hagen 3-4 0-0 6, Fosdick 3-12 3-3 12, Hubbard 8-19 4-6 23, McGrath 0-0 0-0 0, Martinson 0-0 0-0 0, Cox 1-5 2-4 5, Dillon 0-2 0-0 0, Drangmeister 0-3 1-2 1, McCarroll 2-4 0-0 5, Buttars 0-0 0-0 0, Veal 1-3 1-2 3, Lien 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-60 12-18 66.
COLORADO STATE (5-3)
Dennett 5-9 5-6 15, Thomas 9-13 0-1 18, Hunter 4-7 0-0 11, Espinoza 7-10 2-2 20, Nohr 3-5 1-2 8, Kramer 1-3 0-0 3, Shepherd 0-6 2-2 2, Samuelson 0-1 0-0 0, Moulton 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 31-58 10-13 81.
Halftime – Colorado State 43-30. 3-point goals – N. Colorado 10-24 (Hubbard 3-5, Fosdick 3-8, Christopherson 1-1, Cox 1-1, Barbour 1-2, McCarroll 1-3, Dillon 0-2, Drangmeister 0-2); Colorado St. 9-13 (Espinoza 4-6, Hunter 3-4, Nohr 1-1, Kramer 1-2). Fouled out – None. Rebounds – N. Colorado 34 (Hubbard 6); Colorado St. 37 (Dennett 9). Assists – N. Colorado 12 (Fosdick, Hubbard 2); Colorado St. 23 (Nohr 6). Total fouls – N. Colorado 12; Colorado St. 14. A – 1,174.
