By Tyler Nelson
The Riverside City College Tigers women’s basketball team was on full display as they beat San Diego City College, 87-72, Nov. 26 at Wheelock Gymnasium.
In a surprising fashion, given San Diego’s overall record of 1-4, the women’s basketball team fell behind early to the Knights 13-6. However, the Tigers managed to regain their focus and poured it onto the Knights by closing the first quarter with a 14-1 run and ending the first quarter 20-14.
Once they took the lead, the Tigers would never look back as they lead 43-33 at halftime and got out to their biggest lead of the night 82-57 before closing out the game and winning 87-72.
The Tigers had a pair of players earn double-doubles during the game. Sophomore forward Paradise Hanchett had 18 points and 14 rebounds in 26 minutes played while freshman guard Chiderah Uzowuru had 20 points and 12 rebounds in 26 minutes played. Freshman forward Darria Hewitt fell two points shy of her own double-double with 8 points and 12 rebounds in 20 minutes played.
Besides the starting five, the Tigers also managed to get some production off of their bench. Leading the way was freshman guard Dejah Wright who had 16 points off the bench. Freshman forward-guard, Joana Adams, also helped with eight points. In total, the Tigers bench produced 35 points.
The Tigers played excellent defense by limiting the Knight’s starting five to only 11 field goals made. The Knights starting five went 11-39 from two point range and had a shooting percentage of 28 percent. They went 2-14 from the three point line.
Besides the excellent defense performed by the Tigers, they were also much more efficient with their free throws. The Tigers went 13-20 from the free throw line for a free throw shooting percentage of 65 percent compared to the Knight’s 49 percent shooting percentage.
It wasn’t all that pretty for the Tigers. While the Tigers did win the game in an impressive fashion, they did give San Diego an astounding 45 free throw attempts. Have the Knights capitalized on their chances, the game may have been closer.
Riverside will face the Sacramento City College Panthers on Thursday, Dec. 1 in a nonconference game that will begin the 40th annual Tom Gilcrest Invitational Tournament which will be hosted by the College of the Sequoias in Visalia.