January 30, 2022

Warriors Delete 17 point Deficit

By: SID Chase Dodge

What Happened?

It was a great game down at the Jordan Lawley Facility against Antelope Valley Pioneers on Saturday. Westcliff in the 1st half of the game shot a total of 19 points while the Pioneers collected 33. The Warriors had to come up with something at halftime. The Warriors finally responded. Westcliff's star player Trinity Vasquez was held to 0 points in the 1st half. The 2nd half Vasquez wanted to show that she is one of the top scorers in the conference. However, the Warriors had a huge hill to climb. Westcliff was facing a 17 point deficit in the 3rd period. Heading into the final period of the game the Warriors chipped the Pioneers lead to 10.

The Pioneers held a lead of 10 at the 2:30 minute mark in the 4th period. This is when the crowd sensed that something wild was going to happen. After a technical foul from the Pioneers allowed Trinity Vasquez to shoot 3-4 from the line to cut the lead.

In the final minute with the Warriors down by 6. Trinity Vasquez made both of her free throws to allow the Warriors a chance still down by 4 with 40 seconds to go. Warriors fouled the Pioneers where at the free throw line the Pioneers extended their lead to 5. The Warriors with 30 seconds left found an open Sara Weber for the 3 pointer. Clocked was stopped at 21 seconds the Pioneers panicked and threw the ball to a sitting Trinity Vasquez that drove to the basket drawing a foul and the made basket.

Score tied at 72-72. Vasquez 84% season free throw shooter earned the lead for the Warriors. The Warriors needed a single stop to solidify the victory. The Pioneers turned the ball over unfortunately Trinity Vasquez that recovered the ball lost her balance and stepped out of bounds. The Pioneers have one more chance to win this game on a buzzer beater. A missed 3 point attempt with a strong defensive rebound by Asia Anderson secured the victory for the Warriors.

Coaches' Thoughts:

"Antelope Valley helped cause our slowest and least efficient half of basketball, probably all season. They did a nice job making us uncomfortable and forcing us to play "their" game for an entire half. We scored only 19 points in the entire first half, part of that was due to UAV playing physical and not allowing us to get the shots we wanted, the second part was due to us just not making shots and taking too many extra dribbles instead of working off of our mid-range shot selection.

The second half was a different story, led by Trinity Vasquez's 28 2nd half points, we were able to be more efficient from the field as well as doing a better job getting to the FT line by being more aggressive attacking the basket. This led to us shooting almost 80% from the line while shooting 32 FT's on the game.

I just love how this team never gives up, and they are never out of any fight! The tough non-conference schedule I think is still benefiting us since we put ourselves in challenging situations consistently.

Overall we're definitely happy to come away with the win, specifically after UAV played a very strategic game and really pushed us to have to step our game up. I am just glad we were able to finish the way we did!"

Top Performers

Trinity Vasquez - 28 Points (Season High), 7 Rebounds, 1 Block, 4 Assists and 2 Steals. Vasquez is on a 4 game 20+ point streak. Vasquez averages around 18ppg.

Laura Tapia - 17 Points, 7 Rebounds, 4 Assists and 5 Steals

Bailey Hawkins - 12 Points, 7 Rebounds, 2 Steals and 6 Blocks (Season High)

What's Next? Westcliff will be UC Santa Cruz on Sunday the 30th.