For the second year in a row, the Cerritos College women's basketball team saw their season come to an end with a playoff loss at Irvine Valley College. On Friday, the Falcons (20-11), seeded #12 for the Southern California Regional Playoffs, suffered a 64-49 loss to #5-seeded Irvine Valley College (22-7). Last season, it was a 58-48 setback that ended their season.

It was a rough start for Cerritos, who had difficulty getting their shots to fall. The result was a 23-9 deficit at the end of the first quarter, while the team trailed 42-18 at intermission. The Falcons were just 4-for-16 after the first 10 minutes of the game and 7-for-36 by intermission. They looked to get back in the game three points at a time and were a meager 1-for-17 from three-point range at halftime.

Cerritos did come out in the second half and scored seven of the first nine points, which got the team to within 44-28 and forced a Lasers timeout. But Irvine Valley scored the next five points coming out of the timeout and the Falcons could only trade baskets until an 18-8 fourth quarter scoring edge got them to a 15-point final deficit.

Freshman Allyson O'Brien (La Habra HS) was just 8-for-21 from the field, and went on to lead the team with 18 points, while she and sophomore Verenice Gomez (Whittier HS) were a combined 2-for-22 from three-point range.

As for the Lasers, they looked to the combination of Morgan Bryant (15 points, seven rebounds) and De'Jerry Scurry (seven points, seven rebounds, six blocked shots) for their inside points and defense, while Tara Casey finished with 13 points, five rebounds and six steals.

The Falcons also received nine points from Gomez, along with five rebounds, with sophomore Clarissa Hernandez (St. Paul HS) netted a pair of third quarter three-points and posted 10 points. Off the bench, sophomores Miranda Valentin (Bellflower HS) and Crystal Lomax (Lynwood HS) each pulled down six rebounds, with sophomore Sydney Lopez (Whittier Christian HS) adding seven boards. The team played most of the game without the services of sophomore Janel Oliver (Bellflower HS), who took a hard fall in the first half and missed the remainder of the game.