Eduardo Miranda

The Daily Independent

In a battle between two ranked teams currently sitting in second and third place in Inland Empire Athletic Conference standings and separated by one loss, the No. 17 ranked Cerro Coso women's basketball team welcomed No. 11 Victor Valley to the Raymond McCue Pavilion.

In a very close game throughout four quarters that had three ties and three lead changes with the last coming in the beginning of the third quarter, the Coyotes were able to keep up, overcome, and hold off the Rams to secure a 66-59 win.

With the win, Cerro Coso and Victor Valley are tied for second place in conference with an 8-2 record, trailing only conference-leading Mt. San Jacinto, which remains unbeaten at 10-0.

"Very competitive game, competitive team. They are a top-12 team in the state. We finally showed some heart in the defensive end and that's all we ask for. We did that with passion and let the rest kind of play itself out," said head coach Keshawn Johnson on the win.

In the first meeting between the two teams, the Coyotes fell 72-61 including having an eight-point third quarter. This time the Cerro Coso defense held Victor Valley to a nine-point second quarter to cut the deficit to one. That allowed the Coyotes to take a lead in the third and hold off the Rams in the second half to secure an upset win at home in front of their fans.

Johnson said on getting the win behind their defense, "it was huge. I'm never satisfied, so for me, I wanted us to go get 10 more rebounds, and we gave up about six offensive rebounds in the last five minutes. It was a quarter of errors on our end where we could have extended the lead more but instead, we let them hang around. Ultimately you have to be satisfied because you found a way to close it."

In the first quarter, the Coyotes fell behind 3-0 early but a floater from Shaniyah McCarthy and two free throws from Savannah Rowland gave the home team a 4-3 lead. Rowland scored two layups and made a three-pointer to tie the game at 11-11. The visitors retook the lead and McCarthy hit a jump shot to tie it at 13-13. Cerro Coso went into the second quarter trailing 17-13.

In the second quarter, the Coyotes tied the game at 19-19 behind Alexis Staton hitting a free throw, Shayla Kantarevic hitting a three, and a jump shot from Rowland. That forced the visitors to call a timeout, and coming out of the timeout they scored a basket to retake the lead. Rowland hit one of two from the charity stripe to cut the deficit to 21-20. McCarthy hit a jump shot and Staton hit a three to go into the half trailing 26-25.

Cerro Coso took the lead in the third on a 7-0 run by McCarthy, who hit a three-pointer and went 4-for-4 at the free throw line. The Coyotes took a 32-26 lead. Kantarevic hit a three-pointer after a two by Victor Valley. After another basket by the Rams, McCarthy scored a layup after using a pump fake to get rid of her defender. The Coyotes went on a 6-0 run with a three by Staton, Kantarevic hitting a free throw, and Rowland hitting two free throws for a 45-36 lead. Staton banked in a floater and Sierra Dixson hit a corner three to give Cerro Coso a 50-45 lead at the end of the third.

The fourth began with the Rams hitting a three-pointer and the Coyotes responding with a Kantarevic three-pointer and McCarthy making both her free throws. After a two by the Rams, McCarthy hit a jump shot and Dixson scored a layup for a 59-50 lead. McCarthy scored a layup on an offensive rebound after the Rams scored to force a Victor Valley timeout. Coming out of the timeout, McCarthy hit two free throws and Staton hit a jump shot for a 65-52 lead, but the Rams scored the next seven points forcing a timeout. Kantarevic went 1-for-2 at the free throw line to end the Rams run and give her team a 66-59 lead.

Johnson called the win was not only big for the team but big for the program. He said, "it's a big win. That's a really good program, really good team. They have some history. They make playoff every year, win the conference every other year. Good team, good opponent, and it shows what we are made of and what we are capable of doing for the years to come."

The Coyotes are on the road Saturday facing Chaffey and then return home to host Copper Mountain on Wednesday. Johnson said about facing Chaffey, "we have to be better. We have to hit practice and have to be better. We play Chaffey and they are going to come out with a little bit of vengeance on their shoulder. They rebound the ball really well and that seems to be an area where we struggle. Not too much celebrating. We say we don't get too high on the wins and we don't get too low on the losses. We move forward to practices and run Chaffey's scout and see what we have to do to get a win."