SRJC 61, Folsom Lake College 75

The Bear Cubs hosted the Folsom Lake College Falcons on Tuesday, February 4 and completed the first half. When the teams were ready to return to the court for the second half, water was discovered dripping onto the floor at the edge of the key through a leak in the ceiling. Even though the rain had stopped, water continued to come down onto the court. After discussions among the coaches and referees, it was decided to halt the game for the safety of the players. Two days later the decision was made to complete the second half at SRJC on Friday, February 14th at 5:30 pm.

Here is a description of what took place during the first half. The Falcons sank their first two shots of the contest—a 3-pointer by Leilani Edinburgh and a field goal by Lexi Peters—in the first minute. Twenty seconds later the Bear Cubs scored on their second shot—Lindsey Arellano's 3-pointer. Athena Brombacher's basket made their lead 7-3 at the 7:52 mark. After two minutes of scoreless play, Kaia Eubanks hit a 12-footer. The Falcons countered with another 3-pointer by Edinburgh and two free throws by Brombacher to stretch their lead to 12-5 with 3:38 on the clock. During the remainder of the quarter the Falcons added Jasmine Clee's putback and two field goals by Edinburgh. Meanwhile the Bear Cubs made all five of their final shots—Eubanks' 5-footer off of Sydney Martin's assist, Ivy Gonzalez's 20-footer, Eubanks' 4-foot hook at the end of a drive across the key, Hailey Webb's 3-pointer, and Cece Solano's 2-footer—to end the quarter behind 16-18.

The Bear Cubs started the second quarter with the ball, and Ivy Gonzalez drew a shooting foul. She made both free throws. The Falcons scored eight unanswered points on two 3-pointers by Lexie Peters and an inside shot by Emily Bowman. After Gonzalez dropped in a 3-foot pullup jumper, Gianna Darte swished a 3-pointer, and then Gonzalez sank a 20-footer. Athena Brombacher's field goal and Lexi Peters' 3-pointer widened Falcons' advantage to 34-22 at the 5:58 mark. The Bear Cubs put together an 8-0 run on Sydney Martin's 2-footer on a baseline inbounds pass from Lindsey Arellano, Hailey Webb's drive, Arellano's 15-footer off of Kaia Eubanks' pass, and Eubanks' 4-footer with 2:23 on the clock. Peters was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws. Gonzalez's drive with 1:11 left got the Bear Cubs to 32 points. Darte drained another 3-pointer to complete the scoring and give the Falcons a 40-32 lead by halftime.

Here is what happened on February 14 to complete the game starting with the second half: Prior to the commencement of play, the Folsom coach wanted to add a player to the scorebook, Kelis Powell, who was out with an injury when the game was first played. After much discussion, the officials ruled that the player could be added with the stipulation that a technical foul would be assessed as if it was a simple scorebook roster error. So, prior to the Bear Cubs inbounding the ball to start the second half, Ivy Gonzalez went to the line and sank both technical foul free throws. Twelve seconds after the start of play, Ivy Gonzalez drained a 3-pointer to cut the Falcons' lead to 40-37. In less than two minutes Athena Brombacher tallied seven points on three free throws and two uncontested layups. Then a field goal each by Livi Fernandez and Kelis Powell widened the Falcons' margin to 51-37 at the 6:38 mark. Twenty-three seconds later, Cece Solano banked in a 1-footer on a baseline inbounds pass from Hailey Webb. After Gianna Darte made two free throws, Ivy Gonzalez did the same thing. The Falcons scored nine unanswered points on two 3-pointers by Lexi Peters and one by Leilani Edinburgh before Solano sank a 12-footer with 3:14 on the clock. Gonzalez's 20-footer made their deficit

45-62. The Falcons added one field goal each by Fernandez and Jasmine Clee to widen their lead to 66-45 by the end of the quarter.

Shasta Vlasak scored the first point of the fourth quarter on one free throw after 43 seconds of play. Ursula Chen sank a field goal nearly a minute after that. Ivy Gonzalez drew a shooting foul at the 7:33 mark and made both free throws. Chen then swished a 3-pointer. Hailey Webb was successful on a drive, and Chen drained another shot from beyond the arc with 6:41 on the clock. The Bear Cubs went on an 8-0 run on Kaia Eubanks' 6-foot bank from the right side of the hoop, her putback, Ivy Gonzalez's 3-foot bank over a defender, and Cece Solano's 6-foot hook to cut the Falcons' lead to 74-58 with 3:20 remaining. Athena Brombacher put in the Falcons' final point on one free throw with 2:18 left. The Bear Cubs added three more points on two out of four free throws by Sydney Martin and one out of two by Betzie Hernandez. The Bear Cubs outscored the Falcons 16-9 in the quarter, making the final difference 75-61 in favor of the Falcons.

The Falcons, who last played a game three days ago, were faster and fresher than the Bear Cubs, who were playing their third game in four days. The visitors made nine out of 14 shots (64%) in the third quarter, while the Bear Cubs made just four out of 18 (22%). The Bear Cubs were able to make up some ground in the fourth quarter but still only made five out of 12 shots (24%), after making seven out of 14 (50%) in both the first and second quarters. Three Falcons scored in double figures: Lexi Peter, who made five 3-pointers, led with 20 points, Athena Brombacher 14, and Leilani Edinburgh 13.

Ivy Gonzalez recorded her tenth double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Kaia Eubanks scored 12 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Cece Solano added 8 points, Hailey Webb 7, Lindsey Arellano 5, Sydney Martin 4, Shasta Vlasak and Betzie Hernandez 1 each. Sydney Martin made 3 steals.