Owls Upset Cypress in First Round of Grossmont Tournament

El Cajon, CA -- The Citrus College Women's Basketball team got their biggest win of the season thus far on Monday afternoon when they upset SoCal #5 Cypress College in the opening round of the 27th Annual Grossmont College Holiday Tournament 58-55.

Citrus fell behind early on Monday, as Cypress opened up a 7-2 lead out of the gate. The Owls didn't panic though and settled into a nice early rhythm taking their first lead with 8:59 left in the first half off a trey from sophomore Vanessa Garcia that made it 16-15. Cypress quickly resumed the lead, but had made it clear they weren't going to roll over eventually going into halftime trailing by one 26-27.

In the second half, the Chargers once again started off strong early, taking a 13 points lead with 16:38 to go. That's when the Owls started to make their move. Over a five minute stretch, Citrus used a 16-4 spurt to pull to within one after a jumper from freshman Tiffany Villaruz made it 44-45 with just over 11 minutes to go. Freshman Janae Chamois would give the Owls their first lead since that first half take over when she drilled a three with 8:35 left. Cypress would briefly regain the lead, but a jumper by sophomore Bobbie Johnson gave the Owls the lead at 51-50, and Citrus would never give it back.

In the win, Citrus was led by Garcia who scored a team high 15 points. Chamois added 11, along with nine boards and four assists, while Johnson had her second double-double of the year with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

With the win, Citrus improves to 6-5 overall and advances to the Semi-Finals where they will face Cuesta College at 5:00 PM.