COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Turnovers Seal Another Loss for UC Irvine Women

UC Irvine was hoping for an opportunity to win for only the third time this season Thursday, when the Anteaters faced a San Jose State team that had lost its past 10 games.

But the Spartans took advantage of Irvine’s 26 turnovers, as well as its poor rebounding and poor offensive performances, to take an 80-62 Big West Conference victory in San Jose.

The Anteaters’ Yvonne Catala scored a season-high 27 points, but none of her teammates reached double figures. Guard Karie Yoshioka finished with eight points but was scoreless during the first half, when Irvine fell behind by as many as 21 points.

San Jose State (4-18, 3-11 in conference) allowed Irvine to cut the lead to 10 briefly in the second half, but later led by as many as 24. Hulett Brooks scored 21 points for the Spartans.

Irvine, which lost to San Jose by 10 points last month, fell to 2-21, 1- 14.

“I told (the team), ‘I don’t know if you have this death wish, if you enjoy getting your self in a hole to see how far you can crawl out, but as for the coaching staff, that’s not our preference,’ ” Irvine Coach Colleen Matsuhara said. “We need to get things together.”