LANCASTER, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Women's Basketball team won a nail-biter at Antelope Valley on Wednesday night, 66-65. The Vaqueros go into a two-week break as winners of 2 of their last 3.
"Our chemistry is trending up and tonight's game was back and forth for 40 minutes," head coach Sandrine Krul said. "It was a playoff atmosphere and I'm so proud of the team being dialed in and playing for each other."
The first half was extremely competitive, with both teams more or less deadlocked throughout. The largest lead was a 6-point Vaquero lead with less than one minute left in the second quarter, before Antelope Valley made a layup to reach the halftime score of 35-31 SBCC. Leila Chisholm led the way for the Vaqueros with 12 first half points.
In the third quarter, the Vaqueros held a 46-43 lead with 2:35 remaining, but Antelope Valley went on a 9-2 run to end the quarter, flipping SBCC's 4-point halftime lead to 4-point deficit at 52-48.
Antelope Valley's lead grew to 58-52 a few minutes into the fourth quarter. Shortly after, in a minute's span, Paityn Persson made a layup before Leila Chisholm hit a three to make it a 1-point game. SBCC would finally retake the lead when Chisholm hit another three with 2:30 remaining to make the score 64-62 SBCC. Kiani Rojas then got a steal and made a layup to ice the game; SBCC did not need any more points, holding on to a 66-65 win.
Leila Chisholm had a phenomenal overall performance, leading the team with 18 points (4 made 3-pointers) and 9 assists, also grabbing 5 rebounds. Lily Mires had 10 points and led the team in rebounds with 9.
"This was a great team win where we transferred over the communication we worked on in practice and played hard for the full 40 minutes," Chisholm said, playing 34 of the 40 minutes.
Paityn Persson, after missing last weekend's games due to injury, came off the bench solidly for 12 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists, and a block.
"We executed our game plan tonight and made key adjustments on defense to stop their inside game," Persson added. "Our team's chemistry is really starting to come together."
SBCC shot at a lower clip than Antelope Valley, got outrebounded, and had fewer points in the paint. However, SBCC crucially had more than double Antelope Valley's points off turnovers (22-10) and took care of the ball better, with significantly fewer turnovers (13-20). The Vaqueros bench also contributed more strongly, with 19 points compared to Antelope Valley's 7.
After a tough November schedule losing 6 in a row, the Vaqueros got into a groove in December, going 4-3 for the month. They will look to sustain that momentum into January, playing next at Fullerton Thursday, January 4th and at MiraCosta Friday, January 5th.
