Orange Coast College

Women's Basketball: Pirates start hot, hang on to top Canyons

Sunday, December 21, 2008

COSTA MESA -- After a blazing first half of offense, the Orange Coast College women's basketball team managed to squeak past College of the Canyons, 74-73, on Sunday to take third place at the 2008 Coast Christmas Classic.

All-tournament selection Jenna Lujan led the Pirates (11-5) with 18 points and six rebounds, while fellow all-tourney pick Casey Gomez added 15 points and five assists.

After Saturday's disappointing shooting performance against Cerritos, OCC made the hoop look huge in the first half, hitting 20-of-34 from the floor (58.8 percent) and 9-of-11 from 3-point range (81.8 percent). That scorching performance gave the Pirates a 53-36 halftime lead, but the Cougars (9-6) did not go away in the second half.

Led by Charity Smith and Brittney Bradley (18 points each), the Cougars began to creep back into the game and a Coast lead that was as big as 23 (33-10) was just two at 64-62 with 10:36 left in the game.

OCC ripped off seven straight points to push the advantage back up to nine and with 2:15 left in the game, the Pirates still led by seven at 73-66.

But a pair of free throws by Enchantee Merriman and a 3-pointer by Bradley cut the deficit to 73-71 with 53 seconds left. After OCC failed to score, Canyons tied the game with 17 seconds left on a basket in the lane by Smith with 17 seconds left.

After a couple of timeouts, Gomez drove to the basket and was fouled with three seconds left. The sophomore made the first attempt and missed the second, giving Coast the lead for good.

In other Coast Christmas Classic action ...

Cerritos 68, Chaffey 61 -- In the tourney title game, MVP Maleta Daughtery led the Falcons (9-7) to the championship with 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. Vanessa Faagata added 15 points and eight boards, while teammate Rachel Butler tossed in 13 points and grabbed four rebounds.

The Falcons jumped out to a 30-19 first-half lead and never lost the lead the rest of the way, despite 15 points from Arielle McClellan, 14 points from Aundria Anderson and 13 points from Keisha Mackall for the Panthers (13-4).

Southwestern 47, El Camino 41 -- In the consolation finals, all-tournament selection Tagisia Togisala led the Jags (5-6) with 13 points and four steals in their win over the Warriors (5-10). Carla Shaw led El Camino with 12 points, while Ryann Louiee chipped in 10.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Tagisia Togasala, Southwestern
Ashley Wakefield, Canyons
Casey Gomez, Orange Coast
Jenna Lujan, Orange Coast
Arielle McClellan, Chaffey
Aundria Anderson, Chaffey
Rachel Butler, Cerritos
Vanessa Faagata, Cerritos
Maleta Daughtery, Cerritos (MVP)