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UC Irvine women hold off Cal State Fullerton to keep pace in Big West race

February 15, 2026

FULLERTON — The biggest mover in the Big West Conference women’s basketball standings this season has been Cal State Fullerton.

The Titans came into Saturday riding their longest winning streak in 35 years and just a half-game out of first place in the conference. That must have got the attention of UC Irvine, which needed huge games from its two best players to pull out a 77-71 victory at Titan Gym.

“You can never loosen up,” UCI coach Tamara Inoue said of playing Fullerton this season. “You’ve got to keep rebounding. They never stop.”

Fullerton (15-10 overall, 11-4 Big West) was picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the Big West preseason coaches’ poll.

That seemed about right after the Titans finished ninth the past two seasons, and were playing for a new coach, but they came into Saturday’s matchup riding a seven-game winning streak, their longest since taking eight in a row at the end of the 1990-91 season. Fullerton already clinched a Big West Tournament berth on Thursday with a 70-62 home win against Long Beach State.

Fullerton has actually turned its program around under first-year coach John Bonner, who led Cal State Dominguez Hills to the NCAA Division II championship game last year in his ninth season at the school.

“It’s a collective effort,” Bonner said of the turnaround. “You’ve got to have a staff that believes in your vision. You have to have players that buy into it. You’ve got to have an administration that’s supportive of methods and your ability to try and advance quickly, and I think the biggest key has been our relationships.”

Bonner brought two players over from Dominguez Hills, guards Cristina Jones and Kya Pearson, and they’ve helped spur the Titans as well.

“They played on our championship team and they’ve been a really cool part of our leadership coming in,” Bonner said.

Jones had 15 points and 13 rebounds against UCI and Pearson also scored 15.

Dylan Swindle was the other Fullerton player in double figures with 12 points.

Hunter Hernandez had 30 points and seven steals and fellow senior shooting guard Jada Wynn added 23 points on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range to keep the Anteaters (21-4, 12-2) a half-game behind UC San Diego (18-7, 13-2) for first place in the conference standings.

“When the moment is big for them, they step up to it, so that’s what good teams are about,” Inoue said of Hernandez and Wynn.

UCSD hosts UCI next Saturday.

The Titans took their biggest lead of the game at 21-13 on a second straight 3-pointer by Swindle midway through the first quarter.

Fullerton carried a one-point lead into the second quarter and managed to extend it to 32-26 on a three-point play by Swindle, but the Anteaters eventually moved ahead 39-37 when Hernandez stole the ball in the Fullerton end and went the distance for a layup with 2:39 left in the first half.

“Hunter, in the first half, really helped us out,” Inoue said.

The Anteaters went ahead by as many as five before Madelynn Muniz came off the bench to drill a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left in the half for the Titans, cutting the deficit to 43-41 and that score remained at the half.

UCI started the second half with an 11-3 run to go up by double digits for the first time at 54-44. Fullerton managed to trim the deficit to four before the Anteaters scored the final six points of the third quarter to re-establish a 10-point edge entering the fourth.

Summah Hanson hit a 3-pointer for UCI on the first possession of the fourth, and the Titans could not get the deficit back to single digits until hitting two free throws with 48.9 seconds left to make it 75-66.

“Towards the end, we got a little loose again,” Inoue said. “You just can’t ever relax. We started to relax a little bit and they started to catch us.”

The Titans played without second-leading scorer Nicole Steiner (11.6 ppg), who is being managed after missing seven games with a calf injury.

Steiner returned on Thursday against Long Beach State, but she played just 11 minutes in the 70-62 victory, which completed Fullerton’s first season sweep of LBSU since the 2010-11 season.

“We’re trying to be as cautious as possible,” Bonner said of Steiner’s injury.

Orange County Register

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UC Irvine women hold off Cal State Fullerton to keep pace in Big West race

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