Afternoon delight: Pirates punch ticket to Final Four!

WALNUT -- For the matinee-slotted Orange Coast College women's basketball team, it was a rock-star, headliner performance as the Pirates dominated Folsom Lake College, 95-59, in the quarterfinals of the 3C2A Women's Basketball State Championships, early on Friday afternoon at Mt. San Antonio College.

With the lunchtime win, the top-seeded and back-to-back state champion Pirates (26-5) earned a trip back to the State Final Four for the third straight year, where they will take on Glendale College (26-4) in a rematch of last year's state championship (won by OCC, 71-60).

While the rain came down outside of the Mounties' gymnasium, it was raining 3-pointers for the Pirates inside the facility ... a season-high 22 of them to be exact. Coast shot an unconscious 22-of-36 from beyond the arc (61.1%) with EIGHT different players hitting at least one trey against the North's No. 4-seeded Falcons (25-6).

"Our gameplan is to never shoot the ball well," OCC head coach Sammy Doucette said. "The gameplan is to lock down defensively. Shooting well was a nice bonus and it was a long time coming."

Shooting under 30 percent from 3-point range all season, the Pirates picked a great time to have a collective hot hand. Melaiah Joseph led the scoring with 26 points (7-of-10 from 3) with four rebounds and five assists. Kayla Borgelt added 21 points (6-of-10 from 3), while Myia Collins hit four 3s in the first half and finished with 19 points. All nine players on OCC's roster scored, including Madalyn McDivitt, who scored her first points of the season with (of course) a 3-pointer to beat the shot clock in the fourth quarter.

"Kayla and Melaiah are so capable of those types of games," Doucette said. I'm so happy for them. Myia is a vet and it was no surprise at all that she came ready to go and killed it in that first half."

Today's first of four games was over by halftime as the Pirates jumped out to a 59-25 lead at the break. Collins' 13 first-quarter points and eight more from Alyssa Dreessen helped Coast score 33 first-quarter points and the rout was on. Coast hit 12 first-half 3-pointers on just 19 attempts and the Falcons just couldn't match the firepower.

In reference to Doucette's stress on defense, Coast forced 25 FLC turnovers and outscored them 30-12 off of turnovers. 

Up next for the Pirates is a rematch with the Vaqueros, who OCC topped 63-59 back on Dec. 7 at OCC. Much like the Pirates, the Vaqueros are "quality of quantity" with a limited lineup in terms of size, but definitely not limited in talent. Glendale topped San Joaquin Delta 64-49 following OCC's win and were led by Sammy Velasquez with 22 points, Malia Ulery with 13 points and 13 rebounds and Shadel Ffrench with 10 points and 18 rebounds.

"Glendale is extremely well coached and they play with great pace," Doucette said. "We definitely need to be ready to play our best game against them."