Glendora, CA (Women’s Basketball) -- Saturday night’s Western State Conference South Division game in the Owls’ Nest between Citrus College and visiting Glendale College would be close for all of 20 minutes. In the second half, the Owls would turn it into hyper drive on both offense and defense, holding Glendale to just 15.8% shooting and outscoring the Vaqueros 42-18 en route to a 65-40 victory.
The Owls would nab the early lead in the contest, scoring nine of the first 11 points of the game and going up seven 9-2 after sophomore Julia Tani drilled a three pointer. Glendale would rally over the next 10 minutes though, slowly chipping away at the Owl lead and eventually taking it for themselves 16-15 with 6:31 to go.
Glendale would cling on to that lead for the better part of the next five minutes, until freshman Kenya Thomas laid it up and in with 1:19 left to give Citrus back the lead 21-20. The Owls would force a missed shot on the other end of the floor, and pushed the lead back to three after freshman Sarah Rebibo hit a jumper in the paint. The Vaqueros wouldn’t go into the break quietly however, as a jumper in the paint by them with four seconds left made the score 23-22 in favor of Citrus headed into halftime.
In the second half it was all Citrus as they ran out of the gate on an 11-1 run. Freshman Gabriella Rodgers got it going with a jumper in the paint and Thomas capped it off with a conventional three point play that made it 34-23 Owls.
Glendale would get it back down to single digits after a pair of free-throws, but Citrus scored six unanswered getting another bucket from Thomas and one free-throw from sophomores Jasmine Cox and basket from sophomore Brianna Barfield to go back up by 15. From that point forward their lead never dipper below double digits.
Citrus’ lead would hit the 20 plus mark with 5:25 to go when Tani drilled another three ball that put the Owls up 22. Another jumper by Thomas made it 25, and a late free-throw from Rebibo made it 27, the largest lead of the game.
In the win, Citrus was led by Barfield’s game high 16 points and team high eight rebounds, while Thomas added 12 points and also eight rebounds. All 16 of Barfield’s points and 10 of Thomas’ 12 points came in the second half for Citrus. Rodgers rounded out the superlatives with a season high eight points on four of six shooting for the floor and five boards.
With the win, Citrus improves to 4-18 on the year and 4-3 in WSC South play. The win keeps Citrus just one game back of first place Bakersfield and has the Owls in a three way tie for second with College of the Canyons and LA Valley. Citrus will have a chance to separate themselves when they go on the road at College of the Canyons on Wednesday with tip-off set for 5:00 PM.
Box Score