Cal State women open basketball season

 Cal State San Bernardino begins its quest for a return to the NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament on Saturday, hosting Dixie State College at 2 p.m. in Coussoulis Arena.

            The Coyotes have one game under their belt - a 63-55 loss to UNLV, a Division I program - last weekend while the Rebels of Dixie State have three pre-season games in the book.

            CSUSB has been experimenting with different lineups on the court to give the coaching staff a feel for which combination can be most effective.

The team mounted a 10-point lead in the first half against UNLV while shooting well from the floor but UNLV defense and cold shooting caught up with the team in the second half as they trailed by as much as 10 in the final minutes.

Shannon Gholar and Morgan Pryor came off the bench to provide some valuable minutes for the Coyotes against UNLV and could get the start on Saturday along with Krystal Urzua, who scored 21 against UNLV, Jaclyn Rainville and point guard Ashlee Ford.

            PROBABLE STARTERS - For Cal State San Bernardino - Krystal Urzua, Jaclyn Rainville, Ashlee Ford, Shannon Gholar, Morgan Pryor. For Dixie State - Jessica Carver, Lindsey Chettinger, Courtney Boyd,  Jessie Ingraham, Megan Tidwell.

ON THE WEB - The CSUSB-Dixie State will be webcast at www.csusbathletics.com (click on Listen Live).

            LIVE STATS - Follow the Coyotes via Live Stats, also on the athletics website home page.

            DIXIE DOODLES - The Pacific West Conference member Rebels return four starters from last year's team that went 16-11 and 12-6 in the Pac West....Jessica Carver was the team's leading scorer and rebounder at 15.5 ppg and 9.2 rpg with 48 blocked shots and 38 steals. She also made 82 percent of her free throws.....Lindsey Chettinger averaged 10.1 ppg with 23 steals.....Courtney Boyd led the team in assists with 109 with 41 steals and averaged 6.3 ppg and 3.1 rpg.....the team averaged 70 points a game while giving up 64 ppg....in 2008 pre-season games this month, the Rebels beat Southern Utah 59-53, lost to Utah State 74-58 and lost to BYU 77-40, all exhibitions....coach Angela Kristensen is in her seventh year of college coaching, her third at Dixie where she is 32-23 after two seasons.....her overall record is 103-84....Dixie State has 6,400 students and was founded in 1911....the Rebels head for UC San Diego for a 1 p.m. game Sunday against the Tritons.

            YOTES NOTES - Senior forward Rachel Johnson and Ana Onaindia, a guard who transferred from UC Santa Barbara, are both in rehabilitation after surgery on their injured legs and both will be out of action indefinitely.....Morgan Pryor had 11 points and two steals against UNLV....Jaclyn Rainville had 10 points and four rebounds in 22 minutes against UNLV....Shannon Gholar had three assists and two steals in 23 minutes and knocked down a three-pointer against UNLV....Krystal Urzua's 21 points came on nine field goals in 18 tries but the was just two of 10 from 3-point range. Urzua collected a team-high five rebounds and dished off three assists and even blocked a shot in 33 minutes....CSUSB shot 47 percent in the first half but only 19 percent in the second half against UNLV....Coyotes will be two games in the Grand Canyon tournament in Phoenix, AZ, next weekend. CSUSB plays Regis University of Colorado at 5 p.m. on Friday and the host Antelopes at 4 p.m. on Saturday....