FINAL STATS | SANTA MONICA | SHASTA
TAFT, CA – After suffering an unimaginable loss two weeks ago against winless LA Trade Tech, Taft College a week later showed its resiliency by winning two games on the road in San Mateo, California. Taft defeated Santa Monica College in their first game opener 88-63 and Shasta College 64-47 in their last game before going into the Christmas holiday break.
Cougars Women's Head Basketball Coach Romeo Lagmay, Jr. expressed his remarks, "We can be a loose team, yet be a very scary team. It's difficult to explain at times, but we can really beat many of the top teams in the state, but then again, we can lose to anyone in the state. The one thing that we have is we fight. If our team is willing to do that day in day out, then anything can happen throughout the season. We are still trying to figure out some team identity issues. I think we have an idea, and the future looks promising."
Taft broke out of the gates strong commanding a 25-12 first quarter over Santa Monica. The Lady Corsairs showed its strongest presence in the third quarter, outscoring Taft 28-20. However, the Lady Cougars were just too strong shooting an overall 42% from the field, 16-12 transition points, converting 29 points off Santa Monica's 29 turnovers, 14-5 second chance points, 48-22 points in the paint, outrebounded their opponent 47-39, 17-9 assists, and 15-8 on steals.
Sophomore Celicia Enos led the team with a double double of 25 points and 10 rebounds. Enos also had a game high of 5 assists and 5 steals. Sophomore Brandy Edwards charged in with 16 points, along with 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Freshman Alizah Lara had 13 points, 4 assists and 3 steals. Sophomore Yareli Gomez pumped in 7 points and collected a team high 11 rebounds.
A solid Shasta College team would be the next challenge for Taft, but the Gold Status of the Cougars elevated to a level of confidence winning every quarter of the game. Taft shot 43% from the field and 83% from the charity stripe. The Cougars led in every statistical category by a large margin, except assists. The Lady Knights barely edged Taft 13-11 in assists.
Edwards led the game with 21 points, along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Enos was not far behind as the second leading scorer with 17 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Lara scored 7 points but had a game high of 5 steals. Gomez had a game high of 13 rebounds.
Taft will go into the holiday break with a 10-4 record and return to practice after a very much needed rest and resume their next official game on the road against Compton College on January 4. The next game after will be their first conference game against Reedley College at home on January 10.
*Note: TC officially tied the most wins in school history since the 2012-2013 season, when the Cougars had an overall season record of 10-17.