The CSU Bakersfield women's basketball team is heading to WAC final after beating Grand Canyon 61-55 Friday afternoon. It's the first title game appearance in program history.
CSUB 61-55 Grand Canyon. Runners are finally heading to the #WACvegas championship game. @23ABCNews pic.twitter.com/V3LBG3hye1
— Stephen Hicks (@StephenHicks23) March 9, 2018
It was a little bit of revenge for the Runners who lost the WAC regular season Saturday after falling in double overtime to the Lopes. “I think it goes something like this if I’m not mistaken, they won the battle but we won the war," head coach Greg McCall said postgame. "So yeah we pulled it out. We won the war.”
CSUB trailed by 8 in the first quarter before going on an 8-2 run to close out the quarter. GCU led 16-14 at the end of 1 but the Runners jumped back in front to take a 35-32 lead at the break. Alexxus Gilbert finished with a team high 14 points (5-8 FG) and Aja Williams added 11 points to go along with 10 rebounds.
CSUB a half away from their first ever WAC championship game. pic.twitter.com/2DoHbMq6M4
— Stephen Hicks (@StephenHicks23) March 9, 2018
The Runners went on a 7-0 run to close out the game. “In our mind it was to deny everything," Williams said on the defensive stands to end the game. "You cannot score without the ball and in those crucial times we were top in defense so it was just deny the ball.”
CSUB will face Seattle U, the #4 seed in the tournament, in the title game after the Redhawks beat #1 New Mexico State 84-61. The final is set for Saturday with tip-off at 2:00 PM inside the Orleans Arena.
----
Like Stephen Hicks on Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/StephenHicks23ABC
Follow him on Twitter- https://twitter.com/stephenhicks23
