Women’s basketball wins 6 out of 7 games
January 10, 2018
After a shaky start of losing their first three games at the beginning of California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) play, the California State East Bay women’s basketball team has won the last six of their seven games.
“We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the season with chemistry and learning how to win with each other,” sophomore forward Morgan Greene said. “But we have started to figure it out, but in order to continue being efficient and beat better teams in the conference we have to continue getting better in that area.”
Over the weekend, the Pioneers extended their record to 10-6 overall and 6-4 in CCAA play.
The weekend began Thursday against Sonoma State (2-6, 5-7 overall), who is second to last in conference, but still managed to give East Bay a hard fight till the last minute of play.
The Seawolves started the game off strong as they led throughout the entire first half, the biggest margin being nine points. East Bay tied the game at 29 at the end of the half though, as junior Elayshia Woolridge hit a jumper with 22 seconds left on the clock.
In the second half, Sonoma maintained the lead throughout the entire third quarter and throughout the beginning of the fourth, but East Bay continued to play hard.
The Pioneers took the lead with just under six minutes left in the fourth as Greene rebounded the ball off of a Sonoma miss and took it straight to the hole to convert a layup, giving East Bay the 45-44 lead.
Greene has been a prominent factor throughout the season, as she was last year as well. She put up 13 points and 14 rebounds, which was her eleventh double-double of the season.
“This season I knew I would have to become more efficient than last year with the players we had leaving,” Greene said. “So I have made that a priority every game to just try and make an impact every play.”
Greene’s layup lit a spark and the Pioneers led the rest of the game, securing the 58-51 lead.
Woolridge added 12 points and senior guard Janae Chamois added 10.
On Saturday, East Bay went head-to-head against Stanislaus State (3-7, 6-10) in what was a battle till the last second of the game, literally.
With one second left on the clock, Woolridge received a bounce pass from Greene at mid-court. She took one dribble and hit a game winning three right in front of the East Bay bench, winning the game 73-71.
“That felt amazing,” Woolridge said after hitting the shot. “I know my team counts on me and believes in me. I just wanted to get us a win and coach drew up that play in the beginning of the season and we finally got the opportunity to execute it.”
East Bay trailed by as much 14 in the first half against the Warriors. It seemed as if it was going to be a very rough game as Stanislaus’ freshman forward Lizzy Alexander was hot all night, scoring 27 points in the game, 18 in the first half.
But towards the end the Pioneers managed to go on a 15-6 run to cut the lead down to 5, with a score of 37-32.
The second half was a close game the entire way through, with each team alternating leads, but the Pioneers were able to fight to come out on top, thanks to Woolridge.
Woolridge had 16 points on the night, with seven assists. Junior guard Kayla Blair also had a great game for the Pioneers, adding 18 points on 8-for-10 on shooting. Greene had her usual double, which was her twelfth this season as she had 10 points and 14 rebounds.
East Bay is unbeaten at home and sits at fourth in the CCAA conference, only one game behind Humboldt state for third.
The Pioneers hope to keep up this momentum and remain unbeaten at home as they face off against UC San Diego, the best team in conference (9-0, 13-2 overall) and San Marcos (3-5, 3-9 overall).
“We’re going to prepare just how we do for every other game,” Wooldridge said. “Our team plays hard. We don’t have the tallest starting lineup, but we have a whole bunch of heart and that can take us far.”
