The Cosumnes River College women’s basketball team struggled to keep up with the American River College Beavers ending with a score of 50-29 on Jan. 20.
ARC won the ball at the tip-off and forced CRC to start on defense. The Hawks fell short on multiple opportunities that ARC had given them and were unable to make a defensive stand ending the first quarter with ARC up 17-6.
“We were missing a key component of our basketball team, so as individuals we all had to pick it up,” said freshman forward and co-captain Annette Vasquez. “We struggled a bit, but we did what we could.”
The Hawks were without their leading scorer of the season, freshman guard and co-captain Ashley Gonzalez.
During the second quarter, the Hawks created opportunities to score and enhanced their offense. The Hawks worked together as a team by passing, creating plays and scoring.
Vasquez finished with 15 points on four field goals and seven free throws. She also had four rebounds with three of them on defense.
Vasquez said that everyone stayed unified and as a team they were talking a lot more on the court.
The Hawks were down at halftime with a score of 27-13.
Coming back from halftime, freshman center Annie Garrison contributed to the team with five defensive rebounds. Garrison led the team by calling out plays for the them.
The Hawks continued to struggle on defense as the deficit increased. CRC finished the third quarter trailing to ARC by 20 points.
In the fourth quarter, the pressure intensified for the Hawks as they couldn’t keep up with ARC’s offense. The Hawks continued to cut into ARC’s lead by getting rebounds and playing more aggressively in the paint.
The Hawks weren’t able to overcome the lead ARC developed in the first quarter as CRC was outscored in all four quarters.
Garrison said that the team fought hard and improved from last game.
“We have been working on playing as a family and we definitely got better at that,” Garrison said.
Garrison ended the game as the second highest scorer on the team with seven points. She made three field goals, one free throw and had five defensive rebounds.
“Our game plan before the game was that we needed to fight,” said Head Coach Samuel Kirby. “We did accomplish the goal of fighting together and the girls stuck together throughout the whole game.”