The Cerritos College women’s basketball team had its last home conference match of the season in which the team won 72-63.

In the game on Feb. 14, the Falcons ended the first quarter of with 23 points and 20 points in the second quarter, holding L.A. Harbor to only 16 points in the first half.

Going into close the second half for the win, the team ran into some trouble as L.A. Harbor began to give Cerritos College some trouble with Harbor scoring 47 points in the second half.

Although, the Falcons allowed Harbor to pull back into the game, Cerritos College still managed to stand its ground for the nine point victory.

Head coach Trisha Kozlowski said, “I thought our first half was great and I thought our second half they [L.A. Harbor] probably outplayed us and that’s unfortunate.

“That’s some stuff we have to shore up, sometimes teams who have nothing to lose and go for broke, just get things to go their way sometimes.

“We never gave up the lead,” Kozlowski said, “it never got under nine points, so it’s like we gotta learn from it and we gotta [sic] comeback tomorrow [to practice] focused for Long Beach, ready to watch film and go through their entire playbook.”

Kozlowski continued to explain areas she believed needed to be worked on during practice, “The pick and roll for sure, –defense with understanding what we’re doing in their sets and understand what we’re gonna look for against them.

“I think we match up pretty well with them so I’m excited for Friday.”

Kozlowski ended with saying if there was just one or two more of the players stepping up and making plays as well as understanding composure would continue a consistent mentality like in the first half.

Freshman shooting guard No. 24 Serena Rendon believes she did well in the first half, but in the second half was focused more on the defense.

“Our second half as a team, we always play to their level. In recent games we always let them get the lead in the third and the fourth quarter, so my main focus was just defense,” said Rendon.

Expanding on the team performance today Rendon gives her team a grade letter “C” because, “They outscored us in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. They [L.A. Harbor] worked harder and you can just tell they wanted it more.”

Going into the next game Rendon hopes, “to be composed and handle pressure.”

“That’s our biggest downfall as a team, is handling pressure. In all of our games that’s where we lose our lead.”

Rendon ended the game with 24 points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists.

This was sophomore guard No. 2 Angie Ferreira’s first game back off of an ankle injury.

“I was just more cautious as far as rebounding. I was out there on the defensive end, not really worried about my offense. Just being out there for my team,” said Ferreira.

Ferreira had four rebounds in her first game back.

She explained what went wrong for her and the team during the second half, she said that they became complacent and lazy on the defensive end.

“We saw it was a big lead, so we kind of just sagged off a little bit and then they came back,” ended Ferreira.

The team needs to tighten certain areas for the next game, Ferreira said—and come out stronger in both halves, not just one.

Sophomore forward No. 32 Mele Valele expanded on how tonight’s game wasn’t so good and how still coming out with the win was all that mattered.

Valele says, “Chemistry. We just weren’t connecting on the court.”

Valele ended with “This was a great season for me because last year we came from a very small and this team is more diverse and talented. I really enjoyed this season.”

This game was the sophomore night for the players who are on their last season on the women’s basketball team at Cerritos College.

Among those sophomores were Ferreira, Valele and No. 15 Alexis Clark.

Before the tipoff these players were honored with flowers and balloons for the years spent playing basketball as Falcons.

Kozlowski spoke on the three sophomores that are moving forward with their education.

“I just told them they’re always going to be Falcons. Being apart of a team is really a special journey in someone’s life and not everyone gets to experience college basketball.

“They’ve stayed committed to this –we’re looking to make a run in playoffs. You couldn’t ask for much more, I would’ve loved to have gotten the conference this year for them, but we’re right there,” said Kozlowski.

The Cerritos College women’s basketball team has its last away conference match of the season Feb. 16 against Long Beach City College.