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Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The No. 18 ranked Cerro Coso women's basketball team hosted Los Angeles Harbor College in a non-conference matchup in the Raymond McCue Pavilion. The Coyotes went into the non-conference match on a two-game winning streak and the Seahawks entered on a 14-game losing streak. The Coyotes' defense was too much for the Seahawks, holding the visitors to five points in the first half for a dominant 111-28 win.
"Great team win," said head coach Keyshawn Johnson. "It was a good opportunity for us to develop some confidence and continue to work on some things that we are lacking a little bit in our game. Overall, I feel good. I feel the players took the best out of the opportunities and found a way to win."
The Coyotes shot 53.4% from the field on 88 attempts, 34.3% from the three-point line on 35 attempts, and were a perfect 5 for 5 from the free-throw line. As a team, the Coyotes finished with 43 rebounds including 19 offensive rebounds, 33 assists, 29 steals, a block, and only committed 12 turnovers.
Cerro Coso had six players score in double digits with two double-doubles and one player just missing out on a triple-double. Lia Sims led the team with a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, and starter Shaniyah McCarthy had a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds with four steals and six assists. Savannah Rowland just missed out on a triple-double with 18 points, nine steals, nine assists, and two rebounds. Shayla Kantarevic had 15 points, all from the three-point line, Alexis Staton had 11 points and seven steals, and Skyla Kinsley had 14 points.
The Coyotes' defense was front and center in the win over the Seahawks beginning in the first quarter. The defense held the visitors scoreless for the first eight minutes, holding them to 0-for-6 on shot attempts. The Seahawks' first points came the free-throw line on a foul call with Cerro Coso leading 21-0.
The Coyotes were active on the defensive end, jumping into the passing lanes to make steals which then resulted in points off turnovers. But the Coyotes didn't only get steals from open play — they used a full court defense and made steals on in-bound plays from the visitors. The Coyotes jumped out to an early 32-3 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.
The defensive pressure continued into the second quarter, as the home team continued to jump into the passing lane and grab steals for easy layups in transition. LA Harbor scored its first basket in open play after two minutes but did not score in the final eight minutes. The visitors did have a few chances but the Coyotes held them to one and done, and then went into the offense and showed their ability to find the open shooter or get into the paint.
Cerro Coso dominated the Seahawks' defense, making them chase the ball around the perimeter creating an opening in the paint for a layup, attacking the paint and then sending a pass to a shooter on the perimeter, and attacking the paint and making the extra pass necessary for an easy layup or jump shot. Cerro Coso went into the half leading 53-5.
Johnson used the second half to play different rotations and give everyone a chance to play quality minutes. With some of his players returning from injury or not having played much in conference, he said it was a good chance to give them minutes to play and help the team gain confidence as they return to Inland Empire Athletic Conference action on Wednesday.
"It's perfect for that," the Coyotes' coach said. "It's a great opportunity for them to get touches, to get comfortable with the ball in their hand, make some mistakes if they need to, just get it out of the way before things ramp back up next week.
"It's a good one. We had some people running into some shooting woes — we had offensive woes we had to clean up. We still saw some of them, but it was good to start to break it toward the end of the game, and find our offensive identity again. On the defensive side, it was good of us to fix some defensive things we have been working on or talking about from a practice standpoint. It was really good."
Cerro Coso returns to conference action hosting Desert on Wednesday with tipoff at 5 p.m. The Coyotes are then on the road visiting Mt. San Jacinto on Saturday with tipoff at 1 p.m. Currently the No. 18 ranked team is in third place behind undefeated teams Victor Valley in first and Mt. San Jacinto in second.
Looking ahead to the return to conference and what he wants to see from his team, Johnson said, "compete, compete. Anything can happen in conference. You have to earn every single win. It's tough, it's never easy on any day of the week for that matter. We have to get our heads back right, hit the film session on Monday followed by practice, prep, and get ready to go again. I'm expecting us to grind it out for the week, get ready to be competitive, and hope we can earn a win."