Night and Day

Rancho Cucamonga, CA - Three games into the 2015-2016 season, the Citrus College Women's Basketball team took on Chaffey College in the 3rd Place Game of the 2016 San Jacinto Lion's Club Lady Eagle Tip-Off Tournament. The Owls were stymied by the Panthers who won 76-65. Wednesday night's game in the opening round of the 2016 California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Playoffs had a different result, as things differed like night and day in Citrus' 71-63 victory over the host Panthers. 

 Chaffey would sore the game's first points, but Citrus rallied rather quickly with a three by sophomore Natalie Gutierrez and a jumper by sophomore Elsie Mejia. The Owls would extend their lead to as much as six points midway through the first quarter after a jumper by sophomore Allison Zalin made it 12-6. 

Chaffey would cut the lead back down to two, but the Owls pushed it back to six 20-14 after a pair of late free-throws from freshman Marisa Brown. Chaffey would reciprocate with a jumper and the two teams would go into the short break with Citrus up 20-16. 

In the second quarter, Chaffey did a good job of slowing down the tempo initially, taking their first lead of the game two possessions into the new quarter 21-20. The Panthers would push their lead to four points twice. The first time Chaffey would go up 24-20, but Gutierrez and Mejia hit back to back triples to give Citrus the lead back, albeit for just a brief moment. 

Chaffey would come back with a 6-0 run to go back up four at 30-26, but after a 30 second timeout by Head Coach Loree Moore, the Owls settled back into the game, closing out the half with a layup by Brown, jumper by freshman Marisol Chavez-Delgado, and a jumper by sophomore Janae Chamois to go into halftime back on top 32-30. 

The Owls would come out of the break, and go on a 9-0 run that saw Citrus take their largest lead of the night 41-30 after an offensive rebound and putback by Chavez-Delgado with 6:57.  The Panthers would try to pull as close as possible before the start of the fourth, getting their deficit down to five with 2:36 on the clock, but a layup by Chavez-Delgado off a drive and wrap around pass from freshman Jessica Rosas, and the back end of two free-throws by Rosas put the Owls back up eight. Only a pair of free-throws by the Panthers in the final minute of the quarter would get Chaffey to within six with 10 minutes to go. 

In the fourth quarter, Citrus continued to try to push the pace, while playing keep-away with the lead. Chaffey would repeatedly get the Owls lead down to six, but they never got any closer as Citrus put the game away for good down the stretch by going a perfect 8 for 8 at the charity stripe in the final two minutes of the game. 

In the win, Gutierrez, Chavez-Delgado, and Mejia all had a team high 14 points. Zalin and Chamois added 11. Chavez-Delgado would lead the way on the glass with a team high seven boards, while Mejia handed out a team high six assists. 

With the win, Citrus improves to 18-10 overall and will advance to the second round of the SoCal Playoffs where they will take on SoCal #2 Mt. San Jacinto College in San Jacinto on Saturday night. Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM.