OCEANSIDE, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos women's basketball team came out of halftime to go on a 12-2 run and never looked back, cruising to a 65-56 win over La Sierra Saturday night at MiraCosta College.
 
CSUSM (1-1) collected its first victory of 2014-15 season while La Sierra (0-2) is still searching for its first win of the season.
 
"I am really happy of how our girls responded after halftime," said head coach Crystal Harris. "We went in and talked about a couple of things like not getting offensive rebounds and being more discipline on defense so we could spark our offense. They came out and really responded."
 
Four Cougars registered double-digits with senior Heather Thompson leading the way with 14 points and freshman Kylie Coppi chipping in 12 points.  Senior Mackenzie Harnett was a rebound short of a double-double, tallying 11 points and nine boards. Senior Cassie Damyanovich added 11 points while classmate Alex Alvarado dished out five assists.
 
CSUSM extended its lead to as much as 18 points on a layup by Harnett but the Golden Ealges made it single digits after back-to-back 3-pointers by Tina Fantroy in the final minutes of the game. 
 
The Cougars shot an impressive 50 percent from the field and 44 percent from behind the 3-point line. They also won the battle of the board, out-rebounding La Sierra 32-28.
 
"This is a big difference from our first game," Harris said. "Every time we step on the court, we are trying to get better and we did that tonight. Do we have more things to work on? Yes, but I think we took a big step from last Saturday to this Saturday." 
 
CSUSM embarks on a six-game road trip beginning with a stop at Hope International on Nov. 13. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.