Coyote Athletics : Women's Basketball : Headlines

VVC halts Coyotes’ charge, 44-40

By Cheeto Barrera, Sports Editor, The Daily Independent

"We ran out of gas..."

For 34 minutes, Cerro Coso had its game against Victor Valley well under control.

That is until the final six minutes of the game when the Rams took advantage of Cerro Coso miscues to steal a 44-40 win from the locals.

Cerro Coso was coming off a 57-29 loss to Barstow on Saturday. With the losses, the Coyotes’ record falls to 4-14 overall (0-6 in Foothill Conference play).

“We ran out of gas,” said coach Tom Heck. “We struggled for four or five minutes (and that) was the difference. We played 35 pretty good minutes and then for four or five minutes we struggled. We didn’t get rebounds and those few turnovers they cashed in.

“The bottom line is with our situation, we have to play a perfect game to win a game.”

The Coyotes jumped out early against the Rams, taking an 18-10 lead midway through and ultimately ended up with a 22-19 lead at the break.

Samantha Lucas had 12 points in the first half, behind a pair of 3-pointers.

Kara Greymountain hit a pair of treys for eight-first half points.

The Rams started the half off with a quick pair of buckets to take a 23-22 lead that Cerro Coso quickly got back.

The Coyotes went on a 11-3 scoring run to take a 33-26 lead with less than seven minutes to play.

And that’s when the trouble started.

A couple of quick Victor Valley buckets chipped into that lead. Though Cerro Coso went back up by six, the momentum was with Victor Valley.

The Coyotes committed a total of 11 turnovers in the half, several of which came in the latter stages of the half.

After going up 37-31, Cerro Coso found itself on the wrong end of an 8-0 scoring run that allowed Victor Valley to take a 39-37 lead.

Both sides battled in the final two minutes, but the turnovers, mixed with lack of rebounds and shots falling spelled the end to the Coyotes’ hopes of a Foothill Conference win.

“We were there for a while and had opportunities,” Heck said. “But what I’ll remember is we missed a ton of shots in side. We probably missed 12, 14 points worth inside. I told the kids that hurts. Of course if you’re Victor Valley, you’re telling your kids you missed a ton of shots too, which they did.”

Greymountain led the Coyotes with 13 points. Lucas was held scoreless in the second half.

Heck gave credit to Eunie Walker for playing on a bad knee and still toughing it out.

“Just every game we just try hopefully try to get her through every game,” Heck said. “It was two pretty even teams. They just had a little more depth and a little more athleticism. They have depth, but the depth didn’t hurt us so much. We kind of hurt ourselves by turning the ball over and that’s a problem.”

Tue Jan 20, 2009

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