Rams’ defense stifles Gladiators

By Bonta Hill
The Guardsman

The City College women’s basketball team held the Chabot Gladiators to 18 second-half points en route to a 69-48 victory on Feb. 5 at the Wellness Center.

The top-ranked team in Northern California remain undefeated in the Coast Conference play, moving to 7-0 and 22-3 overall.

Rams sophomore guard Marlee Rice set the tone early with her scrappy play, grabbing two steals and scoring eight points as City College opened the game on a 15-4 run.

Chabot fought back from the early deficit as Gladiator guard Monica Garcia heated up, hitting three three-pointers and led her team into halftime with the lead, 30-29.

“In the first half we weren’t making a lot of shots, nor rebounding, which kills our momentum,” Rice said. “Our inability to rebound gave them a lot of second-chance opportunities.”

The second half proved to be another story as the Rams defensive pressure proved to be too much for the Gladiators. City College ended the game on a 23-8 run to drop Chabot four games out of first place.

“There was no panic at halftime. Coach Hayes just said we need to dominate on the boards and we’ll pull out this game,” Rice said. “In the second half, we shot better, we were hitting our three’s, and passing better.”

Freshman forward Shawnte Taylor, who said she is still not one-hundred percent recovered from her stress fracture in her right foot, said the main emphasis in practice has been on, “defense, defense, defense.”

“Coach Hayes has been working us hard in practice, basically working on our defense the majority of it,” Taylor said. “We just have to find it within us to start strong and finish strong.”

Up next for the Rams is their arch rival Foothill College, who will be looking for payback after losing the first game between the teams, back on Jan. 15, 64-59.

The Owls, who are just 11-13 overall but 5-2 in conference play, visit the Wellness Center Feb. 10, at 5:30 p.m. as they look to hand the Rams their first conference loss and pull within one game of the first place Rams.

The Rams now have control of the Coast Conference and are closer to claiming their first conference championship since 2006-2007
Rice and Taylor know that to reach that goal, their team must  remain focused on defense.