Owls Drop Close One in OT

Rancho Cucamonga, CA -- The Citrus College Women's Basketball team nearly knocked off their second straight ranked opponent on Saturday night when they took on State #14 and SoCal #8 Chaffey College in the Semi-Finals of the 2013 Panther Pride Tournament hosted by Chaffey. Instead, the Owls came up just shy, dropping a close 67-69 contest in overtime.

Citrus came out of the gate scoring four of the games first five points, but Chaffey wasn't going to let it be that easy for the Owls. The Panthers knotted the game up at 8-8 with 15:24 to go and then took their first lead with 13:54 left in the first half. Chaffey led for the remainder of the half, even extending their lead for up to 14 points with just over eight minutes to go, but the Owls weren't going to be an easy out either, as they outscored the Panthers 16-8 over the final seven minutes to go into the break trailing 26-32.

Things were just as tight in the second half. Every time the Owls made a run at the Panther lead though, Chaffey seemingly had an answer. The two would play that game all the way down to the final five minutes, when Citrus finally took the lead back for the first time since the opening minutes when sophomore Taylor Jackson converted a three-point play to make it 54-53 Citrus with 5:24 on the clock. Chaffey would take the lead back two trips down the floor later, but at that point it was anyone's game.

Chaffey looked like they were going to pull away late when they gave themselves a three point cushion with 2:36 to go, but the Owls got a jumper from sophomore Jasmin Longtin and another jumper after a pair of defensive stops from sophomore Natalie Lam at the free-throw line with 1:08 to go which gave Citrus a 60-59 lead. Chaffey would hit the back end of two free-throws to tie the game back up with 18 seconds to go, and the Owls would get a good look at a basket at the buzzer, but the effort came up just short sending the contest into overtime.

In overtime, Citrus scored the first two points thanks to a pair of free-throws from sophomore Jaelyn Wilson, but Chaffey responded with six straight to go up 66-62. A three from the left wing by freshman Vanessa Garcia would pull the Owls back to within one 1:32 to go, but Chaffey went back up by three on their next possession. Wilson hit two more free-throws to make it 67-68 with 1:00 to go, and after a couple of missed chances by Chaffey at their end of the floor, Citrus elected to put the Panthers at the line.

The strategy nearly paid off as Chaffey made just the second of the two free-throws going up 69-67 with 34 seconds to go. Citrus couldn't get one of three looks they had at the basket in the final 30 seconds to fall though as they ultimately lost to by two.

In the loss, Citrus was led by Lam who scored a team high 16 points to go along with 15 rebounds for her first double-double of the year. Wilson added 14 and 12, while Jackson 14 points, 8 rebounds, and six assists. Garcia rounded out the superlatives with a season high 12 points.

With the loss, Citrus falls to 2-3 on the year and into the 3^rd place game of the tournament. The Owls will take on WSC South rival Glendale College in that contest at 1:00 PM at Chaffey College.