With a little under two months remaining in the season, perhaps the biggest game of the season happens Wednesday, Feb. 3, when Cerritos travels to face Long Beach City.
Both teams are 3-0 in conference play thusly; the winner of the game will be placed in sole possession of first place.
The Vikings have a 19-4 record and are 4-0 at home and are riding a four-game win streak into the contest.
The play of Long Beach City during conference play has risen to unseen heights.
As a team it upped its points per game from 68.1 to 87.3 in conference games.
“The significance of [Long Beach City’s] scoring output isn’t vital to our success, but they are a team that runs and will take layups all game if given the opportunity,” head coach Trisha Raniewicz said.
In conference games, the Vikings attempt over 81 field goal attempts per game.
Despite the statistics and her coach’s opinion sophomore guard Clarissa Hernandez doesn’t seem too worried.
“I think if we just play our game it’ll slow them down, especially since we match up pretty evenly with them,” Hernandez said.
Cerritos isn’t 19-4 like Long Beach City however; the four losses of the Vikings mirror the Falcons losses.
Both teams have lost to 23-1 Mt. San Antonio three times and each team loss to 18-6 East LA.
“Personally, I don’t tend to put a significant amount of weight on who our opponent has beat or lost to,” Raniewicz said.
“We are battling for a conference title and this game is all that matters for our team,” she added.
Sophomore forward Ashley Flores generally feels the same as Raniewicz.
“If we are able to pull out this game I think it will say so much about[…]the women’s basketball program as a whole. It will show that we’re fighters and we won’t let any team no matter the stats stand in our way of the title of conference champions,” Flores said.
In order to secure a win the Falcons will have to keep the Vikings off the boards because Long Beach City has a 31.3 rebounding margin per game in conference play.
“Rebounds are always big and we need to battle on both ends of the floor to win the boards,” Raniewicz said.
Flores, who averages a little under seven rebounds per game, understands the significance of rebounding against a team like Long Beach City.
“I think it’s very crucial that we rebound in this game. More so, I think it is important to put a body into someone first then really crash the boards and get as many rebounds as we can,” Flores said.
The team believes this is the biggest game of the season thus far.
Flores said when she hears the name Long Beach City she thinks, “Bring it!”
