REDDING, Calif. – Shasta College's women's basketball team split its two games at the Shasta College Crossover over the weekend, crushing Gavilan 78-22 before losing to Cabrillo 65-56.
Against Cabrillo, Shasta started hot as sophomore Kayla Bonomini buried knocked down three of the Knights' four 3-pointers in the opening quarter for an early 21-18 lead. Bonomini had 11 in the first and scored a team-high 16 points in the game. Add Rylee Smith's triple and coast-to-coast layup at the end of the second quarter and the Knights went into intermission clinging to a 34-33 lead.
Cabrillo's zone offense gave Shasta fits in the third quarter and the Knights got careless with the ball, turning it over 11 times in the second half. Justyse Cooper scored the first bucket of the third quarter but the Knights went without a point for the next 6 minutes, 21 seconds, allowing Cabrillo to go on a 10-0 run to get ahead six.
"We got stagnant," Shasta College coach Jerry Brown said. "We have it down when we play against man. Nothing was falling, kids got fatigued and that led to a lot of the standing around and unforced turnovers."
Mikenzy Frye ended the scoreless streak with a 3-pointer but Cabrillo's point guard Heleyna Hill continued to deliver big play after big play, dropping in a 3 and facilitating the offense before Veronica Johnson's old-fashioned three-point play stretched the lead to double-digits.
Cooper was in foul trouble without and picked up her fifth foul with 5:58 left, preventing the Knights from having an inside game throughout.
"We never got in a rhythm inside with her," Brown said.
Shasta sophomore point guard Jordan Martinez, who finished with 10 points, hit 3 and followed it up with a mid-range jumper to pull the Knights within five. Terra Crawford followed with a spin move to a left-handed layup with 5:29 left to make it a one-possession game at 56-53. But that's as close as the Knights could get as they turned the ball over on four straight possessions and didn't make another field goal the rest of the way.
"We're doing what we could – going with four-out, cut and ball screens but never found a rhythm," Brown said. "We missed a lot of shots in the second half that we made in the first half and started throwing the ball around and that's inexcusable."
Shasta 78, Gavilan 22
The Knights outscored the Rams 18-4 in the opening quarter and recorded its most lopsided win of the year. Mari Fernandez led the way with 18 points, Cooper scored 16 points, Kylee White scored 10 points, Keeley Tuggle and Bonomini each scored nine points.