Coyote Athletics : Women's Basketball : Headlines

Defensive stand not enough for Cerro Coso in loss to San Diego City

By Cheeto Barrera, Sports Editor, The Daily Independent

"We just didn’t score..."

Trailing by seven at the half, the Cerro Coso women’s basketball team did almost exactly what it needed to do to get back in the game against San Diego City on Saturday.

For 10 minutes into the second half, the Coyote defense shut down San Diego, allowing just six points.

But for the same period, the Coyotes put up just 10 en route to 17 for the entire second frame.

The lack of scoring led to a 60-47 loss in Cerro Coso’s home opener.

“We played that triangle and two pretty well for a while, but we got behind by nine or 10 and we had to scramble,” said Head Coach Tom Heck. “We went into scramble mode and we scrambled. We’re not really a scramble team, but maybe we should consider being one.”

This was the second game the Coyotes have played this season. A game against Cuyamaca is officially listed as a 75-71 loss, but Heck is disputing the results after a scorer’s table error.

The young Cerro Coso team has just one sophomore on the active roster to lead the team in the early stages of the season.

She (Kara Greymountain) was held off the score board, putting down one field goal (a 3-pointer) and a pair of free throws to finish with five points.

The lone player in double figures in scoring was Sieddah Blair with 16 points, 12 of which came in the first half.
Blair was also the fairly productive on the line, hitting two of three free throws.

The Coyotes went to the line 20 times, sinking eight free throws.

Heck also gave credit to Shardae Moore, whose four second half points were a bit misleading for the effort she gave.
“Shardae Moore made some great drives to the bucket, she just couldn’t finish,” Heck said. “We had some kids who gave us a great effort. Bianca Jordan did a great job inside, just couldn’t quite finish. We missed a lot of shots but you might attribute that to (San Diego’s) size. We had to adjust a lot of our shots.”

In the first half, Cerro Coso stayed close with the Knights maintaining a lead that bounced between four and seven points.
But midway though, San Diego went on a 6-1 scoring run to pull up by 10 when Cerro Coso clawed back to come within five.

By the end of the half, the Coyotes trailed by seven.

In the second half, Cerro Coso got scrappy and shut down nearly everything San Diego could do.

The Coyotes out rebounded the Knights for the first 10 minutes and forced several turnovers that led to fast breaks.

The fast breaks didn’t translate into points and by the time the San Diego coach called time out with 10:08 to go, the Knights’ lead was still there, albeit at a three point margin.

“We just didn’t score,” Heck said after the game, only able to shake his head.

After the time out, the Lady Knights went on a 15-1 scoring run which put the game away.

Cerro Coso will next hit the road on Friday to play in the L.A. Pierce Tournament in Woodland Hills.

The Coyotes have just one more home game in 2008, a Saturday contest against Taft on Dec. 9.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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