The MSJC women's basketball team did not play their best game of the season on Wednesday night, but they did enough to hold off a tough Santa Barbara City squad 66-57 and advance to the second round of the CCCAA Southern California Regional Tournament.

The Eagles fell behind 7-2 out of the gates, but rallied back to finish the first quarter on a 14-0 run and lead 16-7.  SBCC was able to close the gap in the second and MSJC went to halftime with a 36-30 lead.  Santa Barbara came all the way back to tie the game with 1:25 to play in the third, but a pair of free throws by Rayven Crook gave the Eagles the lead back with just over a minute to go in the period.  In the fourth MSJC fought off SBCC to maintain the lead the rest of the way.

Alexis Pina led the way for the Eagles as she scored a game high 21 points and pulled down a game best 14 rebounds.  Sandee Heiermann added 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals for MSJC.  Crook finished her night with 13 points, while Shyann Morreo grabbed 10 rebounds.  Despite not taking care of the ball with 25 turnovers, the Eagles made up for it out rebounding SBCC 56-34.

The win improves MSJC to 27-2 on the season and they now advance to round two of the Regional play-off on Saturday.  Saturday the Eagles will travel to Irvine Valley College to take on the 8th seeded Lasers.  Game time Saturday is 5:30 pm in Irvine.