Orange Coast College

Women's Basketball: Pirates go 2-1 over holiday stretch

Monday, January 05, 2009

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College women's basketball team closed out its nonconference portion of the season strong. After falling to San Bernardino Valley 65-40, the Pirates posted wins over Los Angeles Valley 75-49 and No. 4 ranked Palomar 54-52.

In the win over LA Valley, the Pirates (13-6) drained nine 3-pointers en route to the victory. Simone Ibbotson led the offensive success from the outside, going 5-for-5 from downtown and led all scorers with 19 points. Jenna Lujan added 17 points and seven rebounds, while Casey Gomez added 13 points and three assists.

Against Palomar, OCC led 30-27 at the half and led by two with just under minutes left before Ibbotson (11 points) hit a clutch 3-pointer to push the lead up to five. From there, Coast's defense kept the Comets (12-4) at bay the rest of the way.

Gomez led the offense with 12 points, while Chelsea Alfafara added nine points.

OCC returns to action on Friday at Irvine Valley at 5:30 p.m. in both team's Orange Empire Conference opener. The Pirates' next home game will be on Wednesday, Jan. 14 against Saddleback, also at 5:30 p.m.