After leading for most of its Southern Cal Regional playoff opener Wednesday night, the SBCC women’s basketball team suffered a heartbreaking 72-71 defeat at Cerritos on Maleta Daughtery’s free throw with 3.3 seconds to play.
The 17th-seeded Vaqueros finish the year at 22-13 while the No. 16 Falcons, champions of the South Division of the South Coast Conference, improved to 21-12. They’ll play at top-seeded Mt. SAC on Saturday.
SBCC, which led 40-33 at the half, tied the game at 71-71 on a short shot by Katie Randall with 6.0 seconds to play. Jen Ju was called for a hand-checking foul near halfcourt, giving Daughtery two free throws with 3.3 remaining. She made the first and missed the second but Cerritos grabbed the rebound.
“There’s no way the official should have made that call,” said Vaquero coach Sandrine Krul, whose team was making its fourth straight playoff appearance. “How do you call a hand check in the backcourt when they hadn’t called it all night?”
Francesca DeAngelis scored 21 points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench. Randall (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Josey Piercey (10 points, 11 rebounds) both had double-doubles in the their final game for the Vaqueros. Freshman Janelle Wong added nine points.
SBCC led by 11 points with six minutes to play before getting whistled for seven straight fouls, according to Krul. The Vaqueros, who outrebounded the home team 63-44, had beaten Cerritos 72-58 early in the season.
“Our sophomores just play hard,” added Krul. “They carried us this year without a true point guard or center. This is when I wish SBCC was a four-year school so I could have the sophomores for two more years.”
