UCI Women’s Basketball takes down William & Mary 72-55
UCI Women’s Basketball (2-1, 0-0) defeated The College of William & Mary (0-3, 0-0) 72-55 at the Bren Events Center on Nov. 11.
Irvine took care of business against a clearly lesser William & Mary team, outscoring the Virginian college by nine points in the first quarter and eight in the fourth.
The game began with a tightly contested first few minutes, hallmarked by both teams full-court pressing. However, UCI quickly began to consistently break the William & Mary press, which eventually led to an 11-0 run, courtesy of a seven point spurt from Irvine junior forward Olivia Williams.
Williams would finish the night with 15 points, her highest total since January 2023.
The ‘Eaters and Griffins went back and forth over the next two quarters; but the story of the night was Irvine junior guard Hunter Hernandez. Hernandez poured in 29 points for UCI, a career high.
Hernandez hit four threes on six attempts and led all scorers on the night. UCI Head Coach Tamara Inoue spoke about Hernandez’s performance and battle back from injuries.
“Hunter has been out for almost two years; she missed the second half of conference in 2023 and sat out all last year, battling her second ACL [injury],” Inoue said in an interview with UCI Athletics. “I knew she was going to come back strong. Today she was great, but there’s still more work to do; she’s capable of more.”
Hernandez’s presence was not only felt through her scoring, she also had the second-most rebounds out of anyone on her team with six. Three of these rebounds were offensive and three rebounds came in the same play late in the third quarter. Hernandez has led the team in offensive rebounds in two of the team’s three games so far this season — and has at least two of them in every game so far.
Entering the fourth quarter, UCI continued to hold off challenges by William & Mary. The mid-major Division I program matched Irvine in the second and third quarters — each school putting up 31 points each.
The Tribe got their closest to the Anteaters in this quarter, following a steal which led to a fast break layup from Villanova transfer senior forward Anahi-Lee Cauley, which made the score 58-53.
Up single-digits, Irvine finally stepped on the gas and put the Griffins away. Irvine leaned on their starters heavily to separate from their opponent, with Hernandez, Williams, senior point guard Déja (DJ) Lee, and senior guard Nikki Tom all aiding in a 14-2 run to close the night for UCI.
The Anteaters’ final bucket came on a jumper from redshirt freshman forward Daniela Falcón Hernández, the first collegiate points for the 6 ’2 Spanish native.
Hernandez hit four threes on six attempts and led all scorers on the night. UCI Head Coach Tamara Inoue spoke about Hernandez’s performance and battle back from injuries.
“Hunter has been out for almost two years; she missed the second half of conference in 2023 and sat out all last year, battling her second ACL [injury],” Inoue said in an interview with UCI Athletics. “I knew she was going to come back strong. Today she was great, but there’s still more work to do; she’s capable of more.”
Hernandez’s presence was not only felt through her scoring, she also had the second-most rebounds out of anyone on her team with six. Three of these rebounds were offensive and three rebounds came in the same play late in the third quarter. Hernandez has led the team in offensive rebounds in two of the team’s three games so far this season — and has at least two of them in every game so far.
The Anteaters were victorious in a 64-61 matchup with the West Coast Conference’s Saint Mary’s at the Bren Events Center on Nov. 16.
Next up the Anteaters will travel to Pennsylvania where they will take on two teams in Philadelphia. The first opponent on this trip will be Drexel of the Colonial Athletic Association who is set for a matchup with the Anteaters on Nov. 20 which will be televised on FloCollege.
Jacob Ramos is a 2024-2025 Managing Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu. Jack Fedor is the 2024-2025 Assistant Sports Editor. He can be reached at jfedor@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores.