Women’s Basketball Falls to Redlands at UC Santa Cruz Thanksgiving Classic

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – In the first-ever meeting between the teams, Rivier women's basketball was outdueled by Redlands in the opening game of the UC Santa Cruz Thanksgiving Classic on Friday afternoon at the Kaiser Permanente Arena, 61-52.

The Raiders fell to 2-4 on the season while the Bulldogs improved to 3-1.

Rivier would find itself trailing 26-22 at the half as Alexa Dufries paced the team and led all players with nine points on 4-7 (57.1%) shooting from the field.

After the Raiders outscored Redlands in the third quarter by one point to cut the deficit to three, Rivier would allow Redlands to reach the free throw line for 12 of the squad's 22 fourth-quarter points to pull away for the nine-point victory.

Dufries finished as the team's leading scorer with 15 points. Also in double-digits were Lyric Grumblatt (13) and Anna Stenger (11). Rachel Guinn hauled in a team-high eight rebounds as the Raiders were out-rebounded 57-38.

Rivier will conclude its trip out west on Saturday night with a 6:30 p.m. EST tip-off against Cal Lutheran back at Kaiser Permanente Arena.