In a must-win game for the playoffs, Katie Randall wasn’t about to let the SBCC women’s basketball squad give less than its best performance
Randall, a 5-11 sophomore tri-captain, scored 16 points, grabbed six rebounds, handed out five assists and played superior defense on Moorpark’s star in an 82-56 victory at the Sports Pavilion. SBCC completes the regular season with records of 22-12 and 8-4 in the WSC North. The Raiders’ Tiffany Hurd, the No. 2 scorer in the WSC at 20.2, was held to 13 points.
Santa Barbara was coming off a pair of lopsided losses to L.A. Pierce and top-ranked Ventura.
“Finally, where was this two games ago?” said SBCC coach Sandrine Krul. “We’ve been having great practices and I finally saw our competitive spirit again. That’s what we need. I want us to continue to ride this wave.
“I thought our subs that came in did a great job. There was no drop-off with our subs tonight.”
The Vaqueros took a 35-24 halftime lead after a 9-2 run in the final four minutes. They started the second half with a 14-3 spurt, capped by Imelda Bealer’s driving layup that boosted the lead to 49-27.
Francesca DeAngelis added 15 points while Jen Ju had 10 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Bealer, Josey Piercey and Janelle Wong each added eight points to the Vaqueros’ balanced attack.
SBCC stretched the lead to 28 points, 68-40, on four straight points by Lauren Wells with 9:27 to play. The home team only had 11 turnovers while the full-court press helped force 26 by Moorpark.
The Vaqueros are 17th in Southern Cal in the RPI ratings that will determine which 18 teams make the SoCal Regional. The playoff pairings will be announced on Monday and if SBCC gets a berth, it will probably have to travel on Wednesday for a play-in game.
“We had to win this game because if we lost, we would have finished behind Moorpark in fourth place in the WSC,” said Krul, whose team is currently in third behind Ventura and L.A. Pierce.
