Women’s basketball: OCC falls to Cerritos, 53-50

Amara Aguilar

Orange Coast College Coach Mike Thornton knows his women’s

basketball team is good. His players, on the other hand, may need some

help realizing it.

At least it seemed that way as the Pirates lost a 53-50 battle with

visiting Cerritos in the championship game of the Coast Christmas Classic

Sunday. Nancy Hatsushi missed a shot just before the buzzer to end the

Pirates’ two-year reign as Classic champions. In both of the previous

title games, OCC defeated Cerritos.

On the last play, the Pirates (10-4) had possession of the ball and

took a time out with 10 seconds left in the game.

“We had a play set up that could go against either kind of defense,

whether they were playing man or whether they were playing zone, and

Nancy was one option and then we had a couple other options also,”

Thornton said. “It was a good shot, it just didn’t go.”

Kyra Melville hit a three-pointer with 2:45 left in the game to bring

the Pirates within one point, 51-50, but tournament MVP Jennifer Decuir

answered with a field goal to put the Falcons ahead, 53-50.

Decuir, who scored 10 points, made several key shots for Cerritos.

In the first half, she scored on a layup and then added a

three-pointer to give the Falcons a 31-18 lead with 2:11 left in the

half.

Cerritos (11-3) carried a comfortable 33-23 lead into halftime.

“We had a 10-point lead at half and I told the girls, it’s not going

to be over,” Cerritos Coach Karen Welliver said.

It wasn’t, not just yet. Orange Coast went on a 10-2 run to come within two points of the Falcons, 35-33, with 17:04 left to play.

“We have been talking about playing with confidence because we are a

pretty good team, but we really haven’t been playing with the confidence

that we need to have to play against good teams and Cerritos is a very

good team,” Thornton said. “So we kind of jumped them at halftime and I

thought we came out real aggressive and obviously it helped that we made

some shots to start the half.”

Melville made one of two free throws with 10:24 left to play to bring

the Pirates within one and Lauren Murray made a shot to give Orange Coast

its first lead of the half, 46-45.

It would, however, be the only lead the Pirates would take for the

rest of the game.

OCC was led by Lindsey Galasso, who had a game-high 14 points. Also

contributing to the Pirates’ effort were Melville (11 points, eight rebounds), Liz Mendoza (six points), Murray (eight rebounds) and

Charlenda Van Buren (seven rebounds).

The Pirates made 17 of 58 field goal attempts and hit nine of 24 free

throws. The Falcons made 20 of 55 field goals and 11 of 18 free throws.

“Especially in the first half, we struggled with free throws,”

Thornton said. “We have kind of struggled with free throws all year long

ever since the first week of the season. We should be a good free-throw

shooting team, but we are not.”

In addition to being more consistent than the Pirates at the

free-throw line, Cerritos dominated under the boards, outrebounding the

Pirates, 35-27.

“We hung in there at the end and played some good defense,” Welliver

said. “We defended them and I was really pleased with our rebounding. I

thought we blocked out well and they have really good shooters. I was

really pleased with our effort and how we really took it to them.”

Although the Pirates lost Sunday’s contest against Cerritos, they will

have a chance for redemption Wednesday when they take on the Falcons

again at 7:30 p.m. in a nonconference game at OCC.

“Hopefully we’ll have the confidence that we can play with them,”

Thornton said. “We won’t dig ourselves quite the hole that we dug

ourselves and have to climb back out of it. That’s the key thing. If we

can play with confidence I think we can play with anybody.”

Coast Christmas Classic

Championship

Cerritos 53, Orange Coast 50

Cerritos - Wong 4, Decuir 10, McCarthy 5, Vice 13, Johnson 7, Rivera

6, Wong 4, Amete 4.

3-pt. goals - Decuir 1, McCarthy 1, Rivera 2.

Fouled out - Wong.

Orange Coast - Nelson 3, Galasso 14, Melville 11, Mendoza 6, Murray 4,

Quiroz 3, Van Buren 2, Hatsushi 7.

3-pt. goals - Galasso 4, Melville 1, Mendoza 1, Hatsushi 2.

Fouled out - none.

Halftime - Cerritos, 33-23.