The Cosumnes River College women’s basketball team lost to the Merritt College Thunderbirds 62-53 at home on Monday.
Both teams got off to a good start on taking control over the ball on their offense. The Hawks exemplified a solid offense and had great teamwork on passing the ball to each other, which made the score of the first quarter 9-8 Thunderbirds.
“A loss is a loss and you know, it is what it is, but this is going to help us down the line throughout the rest of the season,” said Head Coach Samuel Kirby. “We have to limit our turnovers, especially in crunch time. We have to really dial in, really focus on the details and we’ll get better and this is experience and I’m glad we went through it.”
In the second quarter of the game, the Thunderbirds maintained control over the ball and were in the lead. Freshman center Annie Garrison made four shots in the quarter and narrowed the lead with the score 25-22 Thunderbirds at the end of the second quarter.
“I think we fought hard, we gave it our all,” Garrison said. “I think we need to work on scoring our layups under pressure, just keep up our fight.”
In the second half of the game, the Thunderbirds were still in the lead and kept control of the ball. The Hawks continued to try and cut down the lead.
Freshman point guard Ashley Gonzalez scored two buckets during the fourth quarter, which cut the lead down to 51-49 Thunderbirds in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Ultimately, the Hawks couldn’t overcome the deficit as the Thunderbirds closed the game with an 11-4 run.
“I wouldn’t consider it a loss because we played our butts off,” Gonzalez said. “I think we played great as a team, we passed the ball, we made shots.”
Kirby said he was proud of the team’s fight overall.
“We fought throughout the game, we’re proud of our bench being loud, proud of our girls, just the will to just compete,” Kirby said. “Our competitive spirit was there throughout the whole game.”