SBCC Women’s Basketball Defeated by Moorpark 68-53 in Conference Opener

After a strong start to the season the SBCC women’s basketball team opened WSC North play with a showdown against defending champion Moorpark.

The Vaqueros battled, but couldn’t keep pace in the second half and dropped the crucial contest 68-53 on Wednesday night at the Sports Pavilion.

“Looking at the stats we are even across the board. We didn’t make shots though,” said SBCC coach Sandrine Krul. “The effort was there. We played hard, but we have to make shots.”

SBCC shot 31.3 percent from the floor, 20 percent from three-point range and 50 percent from the free-throw line. Moorpark is the No.4 ranked team in the state and showed tremendous tenacity on defense to stifle a potent SBCC offense.

Moorpark led 42-36 at halftime and steadily built on that lead in the second half. A driving floater by Mika Jarrett increased the Moorpark lead to 56-45 early in the fourth quarter.

SBCC made a late surge by turning up the pressure on defense. A steal by Aariah Fox led to an Isis Poteet layup that cut the Vaqueros deficit to 61-52 with 4:05 remaining in the game.

However, Moorpark closed out the game with a 7-1 run, including two back breaking drives to the rim by Alyssa Saldana.

Moorpark’s Mika Jarret led all scorers with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field. Fox and Kaylee Lawson, both finished with 12 points for SBCC. Kennedy Nutter chipped in seven points and eight rebounds.

With the loss 15th-ranked SBCC drops to 12-5 overall this season and 0-1 in WSC North play. Fourth-ranked Moorpark improves to 13-4 and 1-0 in the WSC North.