Photo by: Patience Flaro
Unlike most spring sports at Cypress College which have just started their seasons, the women’s basketball team has been playing since November and is already nearing the end of the regular season.
With their most recent victory over the Fullerton Hornets, they have improved to 19-5 overall and 8-2 in conference and have moved into 2nd place in the Orange Empire Conference, only behind the 22-2 (10-0) Irvine Valley Lasers.
Cypress led early against Fullerton thanks to some sloppy play from the Hornets. After a timeout however, Fullerton went on a 13-3 run to end the 1st quarter. With the Hornets leading at the start of the 2nd quarter 19-15, Cypress went on an impressive 11-0 run in less than 3 minutes that would help them to build a 32-27 halftime lead.
Led by the 21 points of conference-leading scorer Jessica Barrow and 20 points from Pressila Blanco, the Chargers started to pull away in the 2nd half. Fullerton’s Hannah Jones kept the Hornets in striking distance though, getting 14 of her 19 points after the half.
Fullerton made it a one possession game with under 3 minutes left, but 2 big shots from Celine Altamirano pushed the lead back to 7. The Hornets scored on back to back possessions to claw back to within 2. After 2 missed free throws from Cypress, Fullerton had the chance to tie or take the lead with the scoreboard reading 64-62 and only 30 seconds remaining.
They were unable to convert, forcing them to foul and send Jessica Barrow to the line to ice the game, which she did.
The game finished 68-64, a tight scoreline that we might see again on Wednesday February 19th when the Chargers head to Irvine to face off against the undefeated in conference Lasers.
With an exciting finish to the regular season in the cards and a potentially long postseason run on the horizon, the Chargers look to head into the SoCal Regional Playoffs with momentum on their side.