Off and Running

El Cajon, CA -- The Citrus College Women's Basketball team, ranked #9 in Southern California, get off and running on Friday afternoon in their opening round contest in the Grossmont Holiday Tournament against Cuesta. The Owls scored 10 of the first 11 points of the contest, and never looked back en route to a 51-43 victory over a good Cougars squad.

Freshman Jaelyn Wilson got the scored the games' first points with a layup a little over a minute and thirty seconds into the contest. Cuesta got one of two free-throws on their next possession, but the Owls rattled off eight straight points, four of which came from the hands of Wilson have them an early 10-1 lead.

Cuesta would answer back with a 10-2 run to draw within a single point at 12-11, but sophomore Nicole Zugasti stopped the bleeding with back to back buckets to put the Owls back up by five. The fun didn't stop there though as Citrus went on a 13-0 run including those first four points going up 25-11 after freshman Olivia Montgomery buried a trey with just over nine minutes left in the first half.

Citrus would push their lead to 16 after another Montgomery score, but the Cougars eventually pulled back to within 10 at the break 20-30. The second half would prove to be tighter for both teams, but both teams would be prone to long stretches of scoring droughts.

The closest Cuesta would get to the Owls lead in the final 20 minutes would be five points with just over four minutes to go. Sophomore Ella Rodriguez answered with a basket a few possessions later, and after a three from the Cougars cut it back to four, the Owls made all four of their free-throws in the final minute to seal the victory.

Montgomery led the way for the Owls with a game high 14 points. Zugasti added 12 points on 6 of 9 shooting, while Rodriguez added 12 and a team high nine rebounds and four assists.

With the win, the Owls improve to 10-3 on the year and move on to the semi-finals in the tournament and will take on yet another tough opponent when they square off with SoCal #5 and State #8 Long Beach City College (10-1). Tip-off is set for 5:00 PM at Grossmont College.