The Santa Rosa Junior College women’s basketball team (16-12) poured in bucket after bucket against American River College (10-17) and won 60-31 on Friday, Feb. 21 to finish the regular season strong after losing their last five.
Prior to tipoff, the team held a ceremony for its three sophomores: guards Lindsey Arellano and Ivy Gonzalez, and forward Cece Solano.
Head coach Lacey Campbell and the staff honored the sophomores with a custom frame of their Bear Cubs number artfully designed with a collage of photos. Bouquets of flowers and a basket of gifts were also presented to the sophomores as they made the walk to center court with friends and family by their side for a group photo.
Both teams traded misses early until Beavers guard Aaliyah Jordan hit a three to open up the scoring with 7:45 left on the clock. SRJC then went on a scoring run, putting up nine straight points.
American River forward Areyana Francies had a chance to score on a shooting foul but went 0-2. The Beavers would not score again until guard Kyalei Williams made her first three of the night with 2:40 remaining in the first. SRJC came out on top in the first quarter, 12-10.
The second quarter began much like the first. The Bear Cubs strong on-ball defense allowed them to pick up multiple steals
With six minutes left in the second quarter, Gonzalez scored after freshman Kaia Eubanks deflected a pass from American River guard Shylaya Banks. Gonzalez took hold of the loose ball and drove it down the court for two.That steal would lead the Bear Cubs to go on another scoring run, this time for 11 points.
The Beavers took possession after Gonzalez banked yet another mid-range with five minutes left. American River’s Aaliyah Jordan attempted a long pass to Banks which was stolen by Bear Cubs guard Lindsey Arellano. Arellano drove the ball down the court and found Eubanks, who easily laid it up for two,causing American River to call a timeout.
The Beavers tried to recover and met the Bear Cubs basket for basket in the final minutes of the first half but would be unable to recover and still trailed 29-18 at halftime.
Gonzalez got hot in the third quarter, scoring 14 of the Bear Cubs’ 18 points. She had a stellar night getting to the rim, scoring 32 points with eight rebounds and 2 steals. Gonzalez is currently 24th in California in points per game and eighth in the Big 8 conference, averaging 20.5 per game.
Going into Friday’s game, Gonzalez was elated for sophomore night. “I think the funny thing about sophomore night is that I didn’t really feel too sad,” Gonzalez said. “Knowing it probably wasn’t our last home game since we will definitely have our first round of playoffs at home on Wednesday, I was actually really happy because it was one of the few times my family was actually in the building for a home game.”
American River scrambled to keep the ball in possession in the third and would have their lowest scoring quarter at five points. After a strong third quarter from Gonzalez scoring nearly triple the entire Beavers team, SRJC led 47-23 at the end of the third.
In the fourth, SRJC scored another 13 points with the help of all three sophomores and freshmen Shasta Vlasak and Betzie Hernandez. American River continued to struggle in the final quarter and was able to come out of an already double deficit. The Bear Cubs sealed the sophomore night victory, 60-31.
The Bear Cubs qualified for NorCal Regionals as the 13th seed and will play College of the Redwoods (11-16) at 7 p.m, Feb. 26 at home.
