Falcons defeat Cougars by a score of 63-42 on Feb. 11 at Los Angeles Southwest College.
In the first half the Falcons started the game at a slow pace.
10 minutes into the game the score was 8-7 with Cerritos leading by one point.
With five minutes left in the first half, the Falcons showed a great deal of defense after Cerritos head coach Karen Welliver called a timeout to pump up the momentum of the game and hopefully move it into a faster pace.
At the last minute of the first half Falcons guard Clarissa Hernandez converted a three-point play, while fellow guard Verenice Gomez drained a three-pointer at the buzzer, making the score 30-18 at the half.
The second half of the game started just as slow as the first half but picked up rather quickly.
The game was dominated by the Falcons during the second half, as they captured more rebounds.
During the last five minutes of the game Falcons showed a great deal of calmness keeping the game at their own personal pace, making basket after basket.
Falcons forward Sydney Lopez came off the bench to score 16 points and pull down seven rebounds, while center Aissha Baldwin also finished with 16 points and seven boards.
Gomez said, “I felt like today we came a little slow in the beginning, because we came in thinking it was an easy win, since we smashed them by 30 points last time we played them.
So we had it, and we just played easy until coach (Welliver) said that we needed to play our game not their game. So after we just started scoring more and more.”
She added, “I think i missed a lot of shots that I usually make, but I’ll just get it down in practice.”
Making her the key player in this game coming off the bench, Lopez was not as enthusiastic about her performance but rather moderate saying, “I think I did good, we just got to start off stronger.”
The game was just undoubtedly slow as Welliver put it, “Yeah, I wasn’t real happy that we started so slow, we weren’t making shots.
Our defense really kept us in it, but that’s what happens. Offense can come and go, but your defense can always keep you in games.”
She added, “I thought we were very unselfish so we had some really nice passes. And then once we got over the first hump we loosened up and got some really good stuff.”
Over all the game was a great win. Now the Falcons are looking forward to their next game against El Camino College, which will determine if the Falcons will finish in first place in conference.
As Welliver said, “We got to get going. (We’re) excited. Yeah, we’re looking forward to it. El Camino is good.
“They shot really well the first time we played them, so we got to show up our defense a little bit. And come out a little bit stronger than we did. (We’ve) got to start off the games a little better.”
The Falcons will play El Camino College Friday, Feb. 13 at home, tip-off is set to begin at 7:00 p.m.
