By Marc Anthony Martinez
The women’s basketball team finished second in Moorpark Raider Shootout after falling short against Orange Coast College 68-60 on Saturday.
The tournament was held at Moorpark College and was held for three days.
The Huskies played Los Angeles Southwest College, Moorpark College and Orange Coast College.
The championship game was against Orange Coast, which is tied for No. 2 in the California rankings, while ELAC is ranked No. 17.
A big story of the game was the officiating.
The Husky coaches and players felt like there were a lot of no calls.
Head Coach Bruce Turner said that some of the people at the scorers table were saying there were some missed calls by the officials.
“It’s ironically two guys from East LA that I helped get started. To have that type of treatment was disappointing, just from a competitive standpoint. I don’t expect anything from them,” Turner said.
The only time the Huskies had a lead was with 2:39 left in the third quarter when guard/forward Guadalupe Vazquez made a lay-up and was fouled where she would go on to score the free throw, making the score 43-41.
The lead was short-lived when forward Makena Ching from Orange Coast would tie the game after she was fouled and made two free throws.
Orange Coast regained the lead and would not give it up afterwards.
Orange Coast ran a backcourt press defense that pressured the Husky players to move up the court.
That caused ELAC to turn over the ball when trying to make a single pass.
“They [Orange Coast] won the game with their press. We practice our press break all the time,” Turner said.
Forward/center Asiah Harris had 12 points in the game and helped the team out early in the game with rebounds.
Vazquez had a double-double with 32 points and 10 rebounds.
In the three days, she had a total of 87 points and 17 rebounds.
Even though she had good games, she always tried to do better.
Each passing game that Vazquez played, she scored more and more points.
In the first game against L.A Southwest, Vazquez would have 26 points and one rebound.
Against Moorpark, she would have 29 points and four rebounds.
“I always think that I could do better. I’m never comfortable with what I do. I always want to outdo myself,” Vazquez said.
The Huskies beat Moorpark 69-55 on Friday.
This game helped them advance to the championship game of the tournament.
Makaia Smith would have a good game with 15 points, two blocks and eight rebounds.
With 1:42 left in the first quarter, Smith got a rebound that started a run for her where she made three baskets in a row.
“I felt like I had to start the energy off for the team because they start off slow. So I felt like if I started fast and made my shots, they would catch on and move with how I moved,” Smith said.
With one second left on the shot clock, Sasha Capers banked in a three-pointer, making it a 28-20 lead.
Every time Vazquez would get the ball, Moorpark head coach Kenny Plummers would yell at his team not to leave Vazquez open.
When they would leave Vazquez open, she would drain a shot to get him upset at the bench more even more.
Vazquez crossed over point guard Mika Jarret and drained the shot, keeping the Huskies lead 30-27.
Smith blocked point guard Calista Arzga, sending the ball out of bounds.
When Moorpark tried shooting it again, Smith ended up with the defensive rebound.
Capers shot and caught her own rebound twice before she passed the ball out, but the time ran out in the half.
In the third quarter, the Huskies had one second left on the shot clock again.
This time, Harris saved the ball from going out of bounds, turned around and knocked down a three-pointer.
The Huskies dominated the third quarter leading 51-42 at the end of the third.
With 3:11 in the fourth, Vazquez got fouled trying to recover a loose ball.
She made her two free throws, but was visibly expressing pain on her face.
She got one assist and another basket before being subbed out of the game with 1:38 left in the game.
The tournament started with the Huskies playing against L.A. Southwest College which had all freshmen on their team. The Huskies beat them by 15 points, 65-50.
Coach Turner felt like the Husky players had a good first quarter, but in the second quarter, he felt like they were out of focus.
They allowed them to play through it so they could see that when they gave a team the competitive edge, the other team would come back, and that’s what Southwest did by almost tying the game.
Vazquez made six three-pointers in the game and was the only player to play all 40 minutes of the game.
Coach Turner said she practices all the time and never comes out of practice, so he decided to leave her in the game.
Guard Melanye Ramirez didn’t have any points in the game, but she had a good defensive game.
“She didn’t have her shot tonight but always plays good defense for us,” Turner said.
Point guard Si’Auna Hayden and Harris both had 11 points in the game.
Hayden, a 17-year-old freshman, played more minutes since the team was short-handed due to players being sick or injured.
Point guard Aliyah Contreras tore her ACL at a tournament in Riverside last week.
Corbin was in a car accident and was sore and was unavailable to play.
Even though the Huskies fell short in the tournament, Turner felt like they still did good and that it’s a work in progress, but when it comes down to it later in the season, the team will be better.