Complete Brackets

After sharing the South Coast Conference South Division title, the Cerritos College women's basketball team was seeded #18 for the Southern California Regional Playoffs. The Falcons (19-8) will open the postseason at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday at Rio Hondo College, who was seeded #15. This will be the third meeting of the season between the two teams. The winner of the game will take on #2-seeded Irvine Valley College on Thursday.

Back on November 12, Cerritos recorded a 57-49 win over the Roadrunners (11-15) at the Riverside City Tournament, who came in third place in the South Coast Conference North Division. In their second meeting, Rio Hondo came away with a 67-62 overtime win in the first round of the Irvine Valley Tournament.

In that first meeting, freshman guard Ilani Avila (Downey HS), who was named All-Tournament, hit a trio of three-pointers and went on to finish with 23 points, 10 rebounds, seven steals and five assists without committing a turnover. Heading into the second half down by five points (30-25), a layup by sophomore Precious Yerena (Downey HS), followed by a three-pointer from Avila tied the game at 33-33. Later in the quarter, Avila scored, which gave the Falcons a 39-35 advantage with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter. Freshman Brianna Flores (Norwalk HS) drained a long distance shot at the buzzer, to put Cerritos in front, 42-38, heading into the final 10 minutes.

Opening the fourth quarter, Flores knocked down another trey to give the Falcons their largest lead of the game at 47-38. The Roadrunners traded baskets with Cerritos the remainder of the game, with the Falcons turning in the win. Flores finished with 11 points, with Yerena (six points), sophomore Therese Zekajj (Legacy HS), who had four points and nine rebounds, along with freshman Izabella Apodaca (La Serna HS), who finished with six rebounds, five steals and four rebounds all playing well.

The second meeting saw the Falcons holding a 57-50 lead with 3:26 remaining in the fourth quarter. Cerritos was then limited to just two points the rest of the way, while the Roadrunners sent the game into overtime, where they went on to record the win.

Cerritos, who was able to get off a last-second shot at the end of regulation, fell behind by four points in overtime before Avila converted a pair of free throws, which would be the final two from her 33-point performance. Rio Hondo scored the next three points until Flores netted a pair of free throws with :27 seconds remaining to pull to within 65-62. Rio Hondo added a final bucket, while Cerritos ended up going 0-for-6 with two turnovers in the extra period.

The 33-points by Avila were the most scored by a Cerritos player since Marissa Rendon scored that many in 2012 against Fresno City College.