Women’s Basketball Drops Opening Game at Orange Coast Christmas Classic

COSTA MESA, Calif. – The College of the Canyons women's basketball team was outscored 40-23 by Saddleback College in the second half of Wednesday night's first round game of the Orange Coast Christmas Classic. With the loss, the Cougars dip to 5-6 overall while the Gauchos improve to 9-4 on the season.

Sophomore Keiona Mathews led Canyons in scoring with 17 points while sophomore Shawn Kolani added another 13 for the Cougars. Freshman Ashley Oliver collected a team-high eight rebounds to go with her eight points.

Canyons would strike first as the Cougars took a 18-9 lead behind nine points from Mathews in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Gauchos responded and went on a 21-13 run to come within one point of Canyons, 31-30, with 56 seconds left in the first half. A final second turnover by the Cougars allowed Saddleback to get a quick layup to give Saddleback its first lead of the half, 32-31, to go into halftime.

The Cougars fell behind, 46-42, at the halfway mark of the second half, before Saddleback scored an onslaught of points by going on a 23-10 that made the game out of the reach for COC.

For the game, COC shot 35.1 percent (20-57) while Saddleback finished at 39.5 percent (30-76). Saddleback out-rebounded the Cougars, 48-42, and had 13-second chance points to COC's two.

Next up, the Cougars will play Southwestern College in the semifinals of the tournament at 1:30 p.m.