Women’s Basketball: Pirates thrashed at Cypress
CYPRESS — Unlike its first Orange Empire Conference meeting with Orange Coast College, all the Cypress women’s basketball team saw in its rear-view mirror Friday was more and more carnage.
The Chargers (19-5, 6-1 in conference), ranked No. 8 in Southern California, forced 20 first-half turnovers on its way to a commanding 82-54 home victory that severely damages the Pirates’ conference title contention.
No. 12-ranked OCC (13-10, 4-3, which overcame a 20-point deficit to earn a 71-68 victory over the visiting Chargers on Jan. 6, were overrun by Cypress’ frenetic full-court press this time around.
The Pirates, who have lost two straight conference games after pulling into a first-place tie with Cypress the previous week, had a season-worst 31 turnovers on Friday.
“I’m disappointed,” OCC Coach Mike Thornton said after Cypress shot 54.8% from the field, including making 10 of 19 from three-point range (52.6%), and amassed 35 points off turnovers to win its sixth straight game. “[The Chargers] want you to rush and we hurried everything. We had 16 turnovers against them in the first game and we’re averaging only 14 turnovers a game, which is second-best of any team since I’ve been here [27 seasons]. But [the hosts] were really relentless tonight and they played well.”
After it seized a 4-2 lead, OCC did little well. The Pirates surrendered first-half runs of 10-0, 6-0 and 9-0, then yielded a 10-2 blitz that pushed the Cypress lead to 51-29 midway through the third quarter.
After scoring the final seven points of the third quarter, the Chargers tacked on the first 13 of the final period for a 20-0 blitz that created a 39-point cushion.
The Chargers were 11 for 17 from the field (64.7%), including four for five from threedom during the third quarter. Their scoring output was the second-best of their campaign and would have been better had they not missed all nine second-half free-throw attempts.
OCC did manage a 30-28 rebounding advantage, but other than five-for-seven field-goal shooting by freshmen Michelle Wu (15 points) and Jenna Rodriguez (10), was continually frustrated offensively.
Sophomore Sami Little had 10 points and a team-best six rebounds, but committed seven turnovers and finished three for 14 from the field (21.4%).
Freshman point guard Chyann Pendergrass, who had 10 points, seven rebounds and nine assists in the victory over Cypress, was one for seven from the field and totaled 10 turnovers before fouling out with three points with 7:19 left.
Pendergrass’ three assists led the Pirates, whose bench was outscored, 48-22, to give the Cypress reserves a 59-28 advantage in that department in the season series. Cypress freshman guard Dominique Culho had 12 points on Friday, giving her 32 points off the bench in the two meetings, four more than the OCC bench’s combined series total.
Culho made five of seven from the field, as did freshman reserve Lizette Martinez, who led the winners with 15 points.
“Their first eight players are all good,” Thornton said. “And [Cypress Coach Margaret Mohr] gets a lot out of them.”
Thornton, who noted that his team’s first six conference games all came down to the final possession, said his team needs to brush off Friday’s drubbing, its largest margin of defeat since a 38-point setback to Palomar on Dec. 19, 2014 — a span of 40 games.
“I don’t think we can catch Cypress, which I don’t see losing another [conference] game,” Thornton said. “But we’re still in a battle for second place and next week is huge for us. We have our revenge game at home on Wednesday against Santa Ana [which posted an 84-82 win on Jan. 9] and then we go to Irvine Valley on Friday.”
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Orange Empire Conference
Cypress 82, Orange Coast 54
SCORE BY QUARTERS
OCC 13 10 16 15 – 54
Cypress 19 20 26 17 – 82
OCC – Rodriguez 10, Little 10, Nunes 4, Guzman 5, Pendergrass 3, Wu 15, Arita 5, Lewis 2.
3-pt. goals – Wu 3, Pendergrass 1, Guzman 1, Arita 1.
Fouled out – Pendergrass.
Technicals – None.
Cyp – Nilsen 11, S. Garcia 6, Silva 2, Movchan 11, Veloso 4, Martinez 14, Culho 12, Mesa 10, N . Garcia 8, Ward 4.
3-pt. goals – Nilsen 3, S. Garcia 2, Culho 2, Martinez 2, Movchan 1.
Fouled out – None.
Technicals – None.
