Turning to their sophomore leadership, the Cerritos College women's basketball team saw three of them score in double-figures, as the team came back to defeat Los Angeles Southwest College on Wednesday. The Falcons (9-7, 3-2), who were playing a "home" game at Hope International University in Fullerton, received 20 points and 10 assists from sophomore guard Marissa Rendon (St. Paul HS) to lead the way. Cerritos will now "host" East Los Angeles College at 7:00 p.m. on Friday at Cal Poly Pomona.

In addition to the double-double from Rendon, the Falcons received 16 points and six rebounds from sophomore Angela Pena (Huntington Park College Ready Academy HS), while sophomore Deenesha Bee (Pioneer HS) finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. The team's fourth sophomore, Diamond Roberts (Mayfair HS) contributed nine points and four boards in the win.

Looking for a way to stop the inside-outside attack of the Cougars Tierra Robinson and Cranesha Jennings, who combined to score 33 points, while Robinson added a game-high 14 rebounds. Jennings scored 11 of her 15 points in the first half, as LA Southwest opened up a 21-14 lead with 9:06 left in the first half, while Robinson had seven points and nine boards by intermission.

But second half adjustments by Cerritos allowed them to start the second half on an 18-4 run to open up a 48-36 lead with 11:36 remaining. It was a fast break attack, with the sophomores accounting for 16 of the 18 points during that streak. Cerritos finished the night with 24 fast break points, compared to none for LA Southwest. The Cougars were unable to keep up with the Falcons team speed and inability get second chance shots like they did in the first half that changed the momentum of the game.

Although they saw LA Southwest attempt 19 more shots (69-50), Cerritos finished the night 20-of-34 from the free throw line, compared to just 7-of-16 for their opponents. Freshman guard Tache' King (Gahr HS) played well off the bench with six points and five rebounds.

Photo by Daryl Peterson