Fighting back from a 10-point second half deficit, the Cerritos College women's basketball team fell short in their 54-51 South Coast Conference game at Pasadena City College on Wednesday. The Falcons (11-8. 5-3) saw their four-game winning streak come to an end after the #11-ranked Lancers (15-5, 5-3) converted their free throws late in the game to pull out the win. Cerritos will look to stay in the playoff hunt when they travel to Long Beach City College (16-2, 6-1) on Friday for a 5:00 p.m. conference game.

With the first half of the conference season in the books, Cerritos and PCC are in a tie for third place, while the Vikings are in second place behind front-runner Mt. San Antonio College (21-0, 8-0). The Falcons follow their road game against LBCC with a road contest against the Mounties.

In the first half, Cerritos opened up a 15-10 lead before Pasadena City went on a 17-3 run to close out the first 20 minutes. It was a 10-point Lancer lead in the second half until the Falcons got to within 50-49 with :48 seconds left on a three-pointer from sophomore Angela Pena (Huntington Park College Ready Academy HS). But PCC was able to secure the win with four straight free throws.

Pena led all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including four three-pointers, while sophomore Diamond Roberts (Mayfair HS) chipped in with 13 points and nine rebounds despite going 0-for-7 from the free throw line. In addition, sophomore Marissa Rendon (St. Paul HS) contributed 11 points and six boards, while freshman Nia Lateju (Norwalk HS) pulled down 10 rebounds. Pasadena City was led by Stella Ghazarian's 11 points, while Shay Jackson dished out 10 assists.

Photo by Daryl Peterson