With time running out in regulation, the Cerritos College women's basketball team had a chance to go up by three points with 7.1 seconds remaining in their South Coast Conference game at Los Angeles Southwest College on Friday. On an inbound pass under their basket, sophomore Deenesha Bee (Pioneer HS), who could have scored an uncontested layup, chose to hold the ball and get fouled. She converted the first to put the Falcons up, 54-52. But on the second attempt, freshman Nia Lateju (Norwalk HS) was cited for leaving the free throw area after the ball was given to Bee. The Cougars would tie the game with 2.5 seconds left after Cranesha Jennings netted a pair of free throws after getting fouled by sophomore Marissa Rendon (St. Paul HS).

LA Southwest went on to convert 7-of-11 free throws in the overtime period to hand Cerritos a critical 67-60 loss. The setback drops the Falcons to 13-11 overall and 7-6 in SCC play with three regular season games remaining. They will travel to East Los Angeles College for a 6:00 p.m. game on Wednesday in hopes of staying in fifth place in the conference. A win over LA Southwest (12-9, 8-4), coupled with wins in the remainder of their games, would have secured Cerritos at least a tie for third place.

The lead changed hands throughout the night with the Cougars holding a 52-49 advantage with 1:42 remaining in the second half. A Diamond Roberts (Mayfair HS) free throw was followed by sophomore Angela Pena (Huntington Park College Ready Academy HS) stealing the inbound pass and knotting the game with a layup with 48.4 seconds left. Tierra Robinson of LA Southwest scored on an inside layup and missed a follow-up free throw to put the Cougars back up by two points. After a missed shot, Rendon stole the ball and was fouled with 21 seconds left, and after netting both shots, tied the game at 52-52.

The ill-fated layup attempt and subsequent lane violated opened the door for LA Southwest, who received 25 points from Jennings, along with 17 points and 15 rebounds by Robinson. Bee (15 points, seven rebounds), along with Rendon (four rebounds, five assists, four steals) and Pena (six rebounds, four assists, three steals) paced the Falcons.

Photo by Daryl Peterson