Oseguera Sets Mark, UCI Beats the Titans

Leticia Oseguera needed 13 rebounds Sunday to tie the career rebounding record at UC Irvine.

She got them in the first half.

Oseguera, the nation’s 13th-leading rebounder, finished with 15 rebounds and led the Anteaters to an 88-55 Big West Conference women’s basketball victory at Cal State Fullerton.

Oseguera, a Mater Dei graduate, scored 16 points, including 10 of Irvine’s first 18. That was part of a 25-0 run by the Anteaters after they fell behind, 8-0, less than two minutes into the game.

“Two of the last three years here, we’ve gotten blown out by Fullerton,” UCI Coach Mark Adams said. “I called timeout and got on them. I was concerned. I was scared.”

Fullerton made four of its first six shots during its opening run, then missed its next 17 as Oseguera and UCI lowered the boom.

“When she leaves, we’ll really miss her,” Adams said of Oseguera, the Big West scholar-athlete of the year. “She’s a great kid to have on the team. You can’t put a value on things she does for us day in and out.

“The fact that she’s not the tallest person out there [5 feet 11 inches] and still rebounds so well reflects her hard work and desire.”

The record clearly meant a lot to Oseguera, who has 903 rebounds--two more than Katherine Hamilton (1979-1983). What she lacks in natural physical ability she makes up for with her work ethic; she is averaging 11.3 rebounds and 14.8 points.

“It makes me proud,” said Oseguera, who broke the record when she grabbed Erin Whiteside’s errant 10-footer.

UCI, 11-0 in games it leads at halftime, held a 40-20 margin at the break. The Anteaters led by as many as 40 points, 80-40, with 5:52 left to play.

Oseguera, seven of 10 from the floor, led five players in double figures: Megan Stafford scored 12, and Sabrina Roberson, Nikole Payton and Princess Hatcher each had 10.

The Titans were without two players and another, Kris Sigg, played despite a broken nose.

It eventually caught up with the Titans.

Sigg, averaging 15.9 points, played with a mask protecting her nose, which was broken in Friday’s loss to Nevada. She played 13 minutes and scored two points.

Justine McMahan (eight points), a starting forward, also missed Sunday’s game because of a knee injury sustained against Nevada.

But the injury that had Fullerton Coach Denise Curry still upset was the one that knocked Nashira Shaw (8.0 points, 7.4 rebounds), a 5-10 freshman forward, out for the season.

Shaw took an elbow from Roberson in Tuesday’s 74-67 loss at UCI and suffered a crushed nose and broken orbital (cheek) bone.

It was another strong offensive performance for UCI, which is averaging 78.8 points over the last six games. The Anteaters (13-9, 8-3) are second to UC Santa Barbara in the conference’s Western Division.

Fullerton (8-14, 5-6), which opened the week a half-game behind UCI, now finds itself flagging behind.