City College women’s team season ends after 63-58 loss to Merced College
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
By Patrick Cochran
pcochran@theguardsman.com
The City College women’s basketball team’s season is over in a disappointing fashion. The No. 4 Rams lost 63-58 in their third-round game against No. 5 Merced College in the CCCAA women’s basketball playoffs Saturday night.
“They just outplayed us tonight,” Head Coach Derek Lau said. “They were playing faster than us, and they were ready. We missed shots that we usually don’t miss. Merced played their game well today.”
The Rams got off to a slow pace, and by the end of the first quarter they were down 24-12 and had yet to hit a 3-pointer, usually the cornerstone of their offense. In the second quarter the
Rams finally connected from deep, but still trailed 34-30 at halftime.
It wasn’t just the deep shots the Rams were missing. They also struggled with scoring in the paint and making layups on drives.
“It had a huge effect,” Lau said. “When we missed layups, they were going the other way, and that’s huge since not everyone is ready after a missed layup to play defense. We couldn’t get over the hump missing layups and three throws. You don’t win playoff games doing that.”
Merced’s quick squad played an up-tempo offense that was hard to stop. In the lane, the Blue Devils Shea Glasglow-Williams, used her skill and size to score 19 points.
Caprice Taylor led the Rams in scoring with 22 points, but even that strong performance wasn’t enough to get the Rams over the hump.
Taylor said that the team made costly mistakes. “We could have eliminated our turnovers.” Also adding, “We went above what our goal was. We had like 20 total turnovers, and we were supposed to only have 12 this game. I think we fought hard the whole game though, they just came out stronger than us and wanted it more.”
Despite failing to advance to the CCCAA state finals, it was still a successful season as the Rams finished the year with a 25-4 record that included Lau’s 100th career victory. The Rams will lose star player Taylor, but will return star freshmen guard Anissah Dowery and forward Zakiya Willis.
