Culver City, CA (Women’s Basketball) -- The Citrus College women’s basketball team saw a solid 8-point lead disappear in the final ten minutes of their game at West LA on Wednesday night. The Lady Owls were handed just their seconded back to back loss of the season in a disappointing 58-69 collapse against the Wildcats.
In what was a tight game throughout, both teams battled back and forth right from the tip. West LA would score the first two baskets of the game, but Citrus answered back with a few of their own as each team traded points for nearly the first 17 minutes of the contest.
The Lady Owls would finally take control of the game around the 3:46 mark, when they embarked on an 8-0 run to take a 28-18 lead after a lay-up by Terri Washington with just under a minute to play. The Wildcats would come back with a score of their own, but a lay-up by Jessica Nieves with just 3 seconds left would keep the Wildcats at arms length going into the half.
In the second half, Citrus would continue to keep West LA at bay, until the Wildcats knotted the game up at 33-33 thanks to a jumper by CeeCee Jeffries. The Lady Owls responded with a 12-4 run, that gave Citrus back an 8-point lead after another fast break lay-up by Nieves made the score 45-37.
That’s when West LA caught fire. The Wildcats got four straight lay-ups (three from Shannon Austin arguably the best player in the conference) taking their first lead since the first half. Citrus came right back with a trey from Terri Washington, but the Wildcats got three straight bombs from Jeffries to take a 60-51 lead with just over four minutes to play.
After that haymaker by Jeffries, Citrus never fully regained their confidence as they ended up losing by 11. In the loss, Citrus was led by Jessica Nieves’ 24 points on 9 of 19 shooting.
With the loss, Citrus falls to 18-10 overall and 4-4 in WSC South Division play. The Lady Owls will try and rebound on Saturday when they play the second of their back to back road games at LA Valley College. Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM.
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