Clutch 4th Quarter Shooting Propels Women's Basketball Past West LA

Women's Basketball played its 2018-19 season home opener tonight, beating the West LA Wildcats 64-61 in a hotly contested matchup. 

Citrus started out in the hole when West LA came out firing from deep and sinking their first 4 shots, all of them three pointers. The Owls stayed behind through the next 30 minutes of play, keeping it close but struggling to sink open looks in the paint despite fantastic ball movement. 

Fast forwarding to the 4th quarter, things got intense. The Owls had trailed the whole game, coming within one point over a dozen times in the 2nd half, and finally gained the lead on a lights-out clutch 3 from Diana Navarro, who was assisted by Kameron Seto. The dagger put the Owls up 56-54 with 3 minutes to play. The pair would combine again for another Navarro 3 with about 2 minutes left, putting the Owls up 59-54 and driving the home crowd into hysteria. The Wildcats answered back, pushing Citrus to its limit on the defensive end and tying the score at 59-59. This time Malia Rocha pulled up from deep on a sweet pass from Keely Wall, sinking the shot and putting the Owls up 62-59. Citrus would hang on to the lead, coming up with some key stops and a pair of made free throws by Seto and Wall to seal the deal at 64-61. 

Kyannie Brown led all scorers with 21 points, adding 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Keely Wall, who averages a double-double this season, sank 15 and grabbed 11 rebounds. Diana Navarro crept up on a triple-double but fell just short with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. 

Citrus moves to 7-4 on the season and knocks the Wildcats down a peg to 10-6. 

The Owls play next on the 28th when they kick off a 3 day tournament at Grossmont. The first game is scheduled for 1:00 PM against Cypress. 

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