Irvine Women Fall to Pacific in Basketball

Eden Palacio scored 34 points to help Pacific defeat UC Irvine, 71-63, in a Big West Conference women’s basketball game Friday in Stockton.

Chelsea Mackey scored 18 points and Megan Stafford had 16 points and 10 assists for Irvine (12-12, 5-7 in conference), which closed to within two of Pacific (15-9, 6-6) three times in the second half but never pulled even.

Pacific shot 54% from the field in the second half and made seven of 10 three-point attempts.

In another conference game:

Long Beach State 82, Cal State Fullerton 46--Rhonda Smith had 26 points for host Long Beach (15-9, 9-3).

Kandace Hunter led Fullerton (2-22, 1-11) with 14 points.

In the Oklahoma softball tournament:

Cal State Fullerton splits--The Titans, ranked 16th in the nation, defeated Southwest Missouri State, 9-0, but lost to seventh-ranked Oklahoma, 8-0.

Jessica Maloney went four for four in the two games for Fullerton (12-2), including a grand slam in the victory over Southwest Missouri State.

Dara Marzolo and Yasmin Mossadeghi also hit home runs in the victory and winning pitcher Gina Oaks improved to 5-0.

Oklahoma (15-1) scored seven runs in the second off Fullerton’s Christy Robitaille and Jodie Cox to break the second game open.

In nonconference softball:

UC San Diego 2-5, Concordia 1-5--Host Concordia (2-5) blew a chance for a split of the doubleheader when it allowed San Diego (7-6) to rally for four unearned runs with two out in seventh of the second game, which was halted because of darkness.

In the Long Beach State golf tournament:

Irvine finishes 13th--Brandon Murray of UC Irvine finished in 29th place after shooting a three-round total of 13-over 226 at the par-71 Virginia Country Club.

In nonconference women’s tennis:

UCLA 7, UC Irvine 2--Nickole Kabe and Liz Yim won, 8-2, at No. 3 doubles for visiting Irvine (4-3).