The Cerritos College women's basketball team used tight defense and solid rebounding to pull away from Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, 53-41 on Friday. The South Coast Conference win by the Falcons improved their record to 12-8 overall and 5-1 in the conference, The team will now travel to Pasadena City College for a 7:00 p.m. conference game on Wednesday.

Leading the second half offensive surge was sophomore forward Nia Lateju (Norwalk HS), who scored 10 of her game-high 19 points to help the Falcons open up an 18-point lead with 5:59 remaining. She scored from the outside in the first half and found her inside game in the second half, as Cerritos increased the pace of the game against the smaller LATT (7-10, 2-4) team.

Helping the team get out to a seven-point first half lead was freshman guard Cassidy Carrillo (St. Paul HS), who joined Lateju with a pair of three-pointers. Carrillo scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half.

Nine of the 10 players that saw action for the Falcons scored, while all players pulled down at least one rebound. Sophomore Alii Salone (Gahr HS) led the team with nine caroms to go with her five points, while sophomore guard Priscilla Valdovinos (Fremont HS) accounted for seven rebounds, six assists and four points. Sophomore guard Tache' King (Gahr HS) recorded four steals, with three of them coming in the second half while the team was opening up a comfortable lead.

Photos by Daryl Peterson