The women’s basketball team will play their second playoff game against Butte College on Saturday after breaking a school record, achieving 23 wins and six losses, according to the Hawks’ website.
The Hawks took on their first postseason game at home, beating San Jose City College 71-61 after taking an early lead in the first-half, according to their website.
“I think one factor is that they’re pretty resilient,” said Head Coach Samuel Kirby. “And that’s kind of been the word all year long with this team.”
This is Kirby’s 16th year of coaching collegiate basketball and his second season as head coach at Cosumnes River College. Some of his previous tenures included Seattle University, Cal Poly and Sacramento State, according to the Hornets’ sports website.
The Hawks finished 11-3 at home and 8-3 on the road with three additional wins coming at neutral gyms, according to their website. Their longest win streak was 12 games.
“I think we just went into the game’s mindset that every team we play is going to be good and every team is going to be competition,” freshman forward Mikaela Whalen said. “We didn’t look at them any other way.”
Whalen averaged 12.1 points per game and led the team in rebounds per game, averaging 7.6, according to the website. She said the team’s main focus going into their playoff games and next season is to keep building their team’s chemistry on and off the court.
“I think for us we need to improve on being more serious in practice, as well as doing more stuff outside the game,” Whalen said. “The game comes easy for a lot of us.”
Ashley Gonzalez, a sophomore guard for the Hawks, echoed Whalen’s sentiment.
Gonzalez averaged 13.7 points per game in her final season at CRC and was third on the team in assists with 2.8 per game, according to the website.
“Even though I’m not going to be here next year I would like for them to keep building the chemistry,” Gonzalez said. “Being able to come together and win together is my main goal for them next year.”
Butte’s record is 28-1 overall and they are on a 25-game win streak. They are undefeated at home and away, seeing their single defeat in a neutral setting.