Women’s basketball:

Amara Aguilar

The UC Irvine women’s basketball team was shooting for a win, but

it didn’t shoot to win.

The Anteaters suffered their third overtime loss of the season when

they fell to Idaho State, 84-76, in a nonconference game Saturday at the

Bren Events Center.

The Bengals (3-4) went on a 17-9 run in the extra period to pull out

the victory.

“(Idaho State) was just as fatigued as we were, but they shot the ball

well in overtime and we didn’t,” UCI Coach Mark Adams said. “Jana

Ciperova gave us a little bit, but some of our other kids need to step up

and start making shots. Cindy (Oparah) made some too, but we need to have

more balance.”

Ciperova (14 points) made two three-pointers in overtime and Oparah

(28 points, 14 rebounds) scored three of the Anteaters nine points in

overtime.

The Bengels led by seven points twice in overtime and took an 82-73

lead on Cassie Bro’s three-pointer with 55 seconds left in the extra

period.

Ciperova answered with a three-pointer to cut Idaho’s lead to 76-82

with 50 seconds left, but Jennifer Griffin and Yolanda Banks each made a

free throw to secure the win for the Bengals.

Idaho made five of seven (71.4%) of their field goals in overtime

while the Anteaters made three of six field goal attempts after

regulation.

The Anteaters didn’t do much better in the second half either. UCI

made 15 of 33 field goal attempts (45.5%) while the Vandals made 14 of 29

field goal attempts (48.3%).

UCI took a 35-28 lead going into the second half, but the Bengals took

their first lead, 40-39, on a jump shot by Bro with 14:30 left in the

regulation.

Idaho went on a 12-6 spurt to take a 52-45 lead with 11:13 left. UC

Irvine rallied with a 10-4 run to take a 57-56 lead with 3:27 left in the

game.

Brandy Hudson made a two-pointer with 31 seconds left in the game to

tie the score, 67-67. Kristen Green grabbed a key rebound on a missed

Idaho shot to give UCI possession with 10 seconds left.

Ciperova made a long pass to Oparah, who dished the ball to Hudson,

who went in for a layup that went in just after the buzzer sending the

game into overtime.

“That’s a play we run all the time,” Adams said. “We didn’t start it

out properly. Cindy didn’t come up high enough to get the lob.”