The No. 3-seed UC Riverside women’s basketball team ended any Cinderella hopes for No. 6-seed Cal State Fullerton in the quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament with a 59-47 win on Thursday at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Highlanders defense proved to be too tough for the Titans, forcing CSUF to shoot a meager 27 percent from the floor.

The Titan 1-2 punch of Toni Thomas and Jasmine Scott was held in check throughout the game, after scoring a combined 40 points on 17 of 25 shooting in the opening round against Long Beach. The duo managed only 12 points on 4 of 24 shooting against the Highlanders’ stingy defense.

Titan Head Coach Maryalyce Jeremiah said the Highlanders did a good job of containing Thomas.

“They double-teamed her [Thomas],” Jeremiah said. “When she’s double-teamed, she becomes very tentative and she doesn’t see the other player coming.”

The Titans jumped out to a 12-6 lead in the first half after a layup by Scott, but managed only two points over the next 12 minutes to fall behind 22-14. Lauren Chow, the Big West Freshman of the Year, cut the lead to five by hitting a three-pointer with 12 seconds left in the half.

She kept the Titans in the game with nine points in the first half, but said getting the team involved in the offense limited her shot total in the second half.

“We were successful yesterday [against Long Beach] by sharing the ball, so maybe that was part of it,” Chow said. “I was a little tired [in the second half], but they also did a nice job on defending me.”

Chow finished the game with 14 points on 5-13 shooting, going 4-9 from three-point range in 37 minutes.

“[The Highlanders] face guarded her very well,” Jeremiah said. “She’s a great three-point shooter, and I don’t usually use the word ‘great’ with any of my players.”

Fullerton attempted to mount a comeback midway through the second half with a full-court press that sparked a 7-0 run, lowering the lead to 43-36.

The Highlanders, however, were able to put the game away with solid free-throw shooting. The team hit 17 of 19 from the charity stripe during the second half to end any comeback hopes. The free-throw shooting helped offset the teams’ 35 percent field goal shooting.

Roney Friend scored a game-high 17 points for the Highlanders and added 13 rebounds.

“Today, being our first game of the tournament, we had to bring that energy,” Friend said. “We had to capitalize on the things we didn’t do in the previous games.”

Highlander Head Coach John Margaritis said the biggest key for ending his teams’ four-game losing streak was the energy level.

“For those 40 minutes, we played as hard as we could,” Margaritis said.

While the loss for the Titans ended the season, Jeremiah is already looking forward to next season.

“The one redeeming value is we learned a lot this tournament,” Jeremiah said. “With players like Lauren [Chow] and Davyionne [Weathersby] coming back, along with Thomas, our other freshman and other recruits coming in, we think the future is very bright.”