Citrus Scraps for Double-Overtime Victory

After finding itself in a 15-point hole after the first quarter, Citrus College put a solid comeback effort in the second half to not only force extra time with Chaffey College but grab an 88-80 victory.

With their sixth win in a row, the Owls improve to 7-1 on the year. It marks the best start to the season in almost two decades (no records are available prior to the 2004-05 season). The Panthers drop to 3-7 on the year.

Despite Chaffey winning the glass and putting up better shooting numbers from the floor, Citrus scrapped its way back from a 24-9 deficit after the first 10 minutes of action. Four Owls finished the night with double-digit points, led by Katherine Goostrey's triple-double effort (25 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists). Krystle Medrano followed with 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting, while Tiffany Hall chipped in 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Giselle Garcia-Nunez rounded out the quartet with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Citrus woke up in the second quarter, finishing the last five minutes on an 8-0 run to pull within single digits at the break, 30-21.

The Panthers scored two buckets to open the third, but the Owls slowly began chipping away at the margin.

With four minutes left in the third, Medrano and Goostrey drained back-to-back treys, followed by a Felicity Mendoza jumper, to put the Owls within five and force a Panther timeout.

Chaffey built back a multi-possession lead early in the fourth, but Citrus wasn't ready to roll over and made things interesting heading down the stretch. Medrano grabbed an offensive board and banked in a layup to tie the game and turn up the intensity.

With eight seconds remaining on the clock, Hall knocked down two free throws to put the Owls in front, but the Panthers drove to the basket five seconds later to tie the game up.

The two teams stayed even through the first overtime period, heading into a second extra five minutes deadlocked at 67-67.

Citrus tried to shake Chaffey early in the period, but the Panthers kept pace until the Owls scored six unanswered points to jump in front 79-72. Four free throws from Goostrey after Chaffey got a technical all but sealed the 88-80 victory for the Owls.

Citrus heads to the Cypress College Tournament this weekend, first taking on Palomar College on Friday at 4:00 p.m.