CARSON – Ariana Harper scored a career-high 31 points off the bench, Janelle Sumilong contributed to 23 but her 3-pointer attempt to tie the game at the buzzer came up short as the Cal State Dominguez Hills women's basketball team fell to Cal State East Bay 90-87 at the Torodome Thursday despite a brilliant effort to erase a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
 
Down by 16 for the largest gap in the game with 7:46 left in the final period, the Toros went on a 24-12 run to cut the deficit to 88-87 with nine seconds left. The Pioneers (15-7, 11-5 CCAA) got a pair of free throws from Kincso Kelemen to make it 90-87 with four seconds left.
 
Sumilong tried to find an open look for the game-tying 3-pointer but it missed wide right at the buzzer.
 
The setback drops the Toros to 10-11 overall, but more importantly to 7-8 in the CCAA, knocking them to the ninth spot in the standings after Humboldt State defeated Cal Poly Pomona in Arcata to move one game ahead of Dominguez Hills for the final spot of the CCAA Tournament with seven games remaining.
 
The Toros finished the night shooting just 42 percent (31-for-74) from the field while the Pioneers hit 47.6 percent (30-for-63) of their shots, 10 of which came from 3-point range.
 
While East Bay edged the rebounding column 49-39, Dominguez Hills was led by Ahlisha Henderson and Dijour Ledbetter with seven each.
 
It turned out to be an amazing second half for Harper, who went into the locker room with only 10 points to her name. She would come through during that 24-12 run by which she scored more than half of those points. She narrowly missed joining the program's top five list for most points scored in a single game by two.
 
Sumilong also followed Harper following a seven-point first-half performance.
 
The Toros wrap up the brief homestand Saturday hosting Cal State Monterey Bay, tipoff is at 1 p.m. The Otters are coming off a victory up the 710 freeway at Cal State LA tonight.
 
Dominguez Hills won the last meeting, 81-62, before going into Christmas break.