Glendora, CA (Women’s Basketball) – After starting off the season 6-0, the Lady Owls women’s basketball program has seemingly hit the wall losing six of their last eight games and four straight, including today’s 77-79 loss to Imperial Valley.
Citrus would jump out to an early five point lead, but that quickly changed as IVC tied the game up at 5-5 just three short minutes into the game. From that point on Imperial Valley would prove relentless, taking as much as an 18-point lead before settling in for a 44-33 lead going into half-time.
The Lady Owls would open up the second half with back to back buckets, but IVC quickly answered with a 7-0 run to push their lead back up to 14. For every Citrus run, Imperial Valley would have an answer. While the IVC lead seemed to be out of reach, Citrus would make their final push with just over two minutes to play.
After IVC’s Angelica Lopez sank back to back free-throws to push their lead back to six points, Citrus’ Terri Washington took things into her own hands hitting two shots in a row to pull within 3-points of IVC. With just 23 seconds left in the game, Washington pulled the score even closer after her two free throws made the score 77-78.
On the in bound after the free-throws, Citrus tried to force Imperial Valley into turnover, but settled for putting IVC’s Brandi Webb at the line to shoot two free-throws with just 13 seconds showing on the clock.
Webb would miss both chances at the charity stripe, and on the ensuing scrum for the ball Washington wound up with the ball on the floor. Washington called for a time-out, but with no time-out’s left, the Owls were assessed a technical, giving IVC two shots and the ball back on the base-line.
Angelica Lopez would sink one of her two-free throws, and on the in-bound the Lady Owls were unable to foul or grab a rebound as IVC missed two-shots in the final three seconds. Time ran out and IVC secured their sixth win of the season.
Freshman guards Jessica Nieves and Terri Washington each poured in a team high 18 points, while freshman center Caitlyn Hernandez grabbed a team high 9 rebounds. Citrus shot well from the field connecting on 48.5% of their shots, but while they fared well from the field, they struggled from the free-throw line where they hit just 5 of 18 shots from the charity stripe.
With the loss the Lady Owls fall to 8-6 on the season. Citrus, who has played just 3 games so far at home this season, will hit the road once again for games on back to back nights next weekend at LA Harbor on Friday and LA City on Saturday.
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