LA JOLLA — Against the 22nd ranked team in the country, on their home court, the Stanislaus State women's basketball team put up a fight and stretched the Tritons to overtime before falling in an 88-81 thriller Saturday night.

UC San Diego out-ran the Warriors in the extra five minutes of play to win its sixth straight to improve to 20-3 overall and 15-2 in CCAA play. The Warriors, losers of three straight, dropped to 14-8 and 10-6 in conference play. Stan State still holds the fourth spot in the CCAA standings with the top three teams pulling away.

Four Warriors were in double digits in scoring but it wasn't enough. Reana Hardin, who had 20 points Friday night at San Bernardino, led the team with 17 points, including four three-pointers. It was one of her three-pointers with 19 seconds left to play in regulation that tied the game at 69-69 to force overtime.

Cassidy Sanders-Curry scored 14 points with 10 rebounds for a double-double, Riley Holladay scored 16 points and Taylor Faucett chipped in 10. Alysa Valentine was not far behind with nine points. The rest of the team, though, combined for the other 15 points.

In the tight game which had eight ties and two lead changes and UCSD only led by seven briefly, the Warriors cut a late five-point deficit with 1:27 to play to tie the game for the ninth time at the end of four quarters. Stan State actually led by three at 3:52 left to play after a pair of Ana Burch free throws.

In the extra time, after 71-71, UC San Diego used a 11-2 run to take a nine-point lead en route to improving its home record in the RIMAC to 9-1 this season.

Jamie Katuna and Farrah Shokoor each had 21 points and Beth Mounier scored 19 for the Tritons.

Stanislaus is now just 1 1/2 games ahead of Cal State San Bernardino and Humboldt State, both winners Saturday, for the fourth place spot where the occupant would host a home game in the first round of the CCAA tournament on March 1.