It is a trend the CSUN Matador women’s basketball team has developed its last three games; coming back from a huge, double-digit deficit late in the second half of a road game just to come up short in the end.

The first time came against UC Riverside back on Feb. 8, where the Matadors cut a 19-point lead in the second half to just eight. Two days later against Cal State Fullerton, the Matadors found themselves down by as many as 15, but got it down to five before time ran out.

The script for Saturday’s game against the UC Davis Aggies was no different. The Matadors trailed 65-53 at one point in the second half, though it went down with guns blazing, going on a 15-4 run in the game’s final stages, only to come up just a tad short, falling to the Aggies 69-68 at the Sports Pavilion.

CSUN played from behind right from the start, as the Aggies scored the first seven points of the game. After CSUN scored six in a row, UC Davis answered with another 7-0 run to lead 14-6. The Aggies, though, were just getting started, going on its own 15-4 run to open up a 33-17 lead and eventually taking a 35-23 lead into the halftime break.

The Matadors were once again led by senior guard Krisztina Fuleki, who scored 23 points, 15 of them on 5-12 shooting from the three-point line. Fellow senior guard Jamie McCaa also had a strong game, as she scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Oddly enough, CSUN only used seven players against the Aggies Saturday night.

“They run an aggressive offense,” Matador head coach Staci Schulz said. “We couldn’t utilize our post players.”

CSUN’s loss dropped them to 11-14 on the season, though the game had no bearing on the Matadors’ position in the Big West Conference. CSUN remains in third place, but only a half-a-game behind the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos for second. The Matadors resume conference play on Saturday night when it travels back up North, this time to Stockton to face the University of the Pacific Tigers at the Alex G. Spanos Center. Game time is at 7 p.m.