With two definitive wins this past weekend, the California State University, East Bay women’s basketball team move into sole possession of second place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association and now are just one game back of first.

The Pioneers (12-7, 9-3 CCAA) find themselves in a much better situation than last season at this point, having only a 4-8 conference record through 12 games.

Having won eight of their last 10 with the help of their stifling scoring defense that currently ranks second in the CCAA, Head Coach Suzy Barcomb is more or less happy with where her team is currently at this season.

“As a coach I am pleased with this season,” said Barcomb. “In terms of wins and losses, I think there are a couple wins we should have had but as long as we are better than we were last year in the standings, when we had to make the big run of nine wins in a row to climb out of the cellar, the more we buy into who we are trying to be. I think the end result will be good for us.”

The Pioneers women’s basketball team blew out the Sonoma State Seawolves on Saturday, 71 to 39, and closed out the weekend with another decisive win against the San Francisco State Gators on Sunday, 74 to 54.

The identity of this team centers on the defensive side of the ball. The Pioneers cause an average of 19.8 turnovers a game which is tied for number one in the conference and caused a total of 47 in the last two games, 28 on Saturday alone.

The defense, for Barcomb and her team, is where this teams success lives and dies.

“It is something I really focus on. I have always focused on it as a coach,” said Barcomb. “We run a kind of unusual matchup zone formation and most teams aren’t used to it. When it works well, it works very well. When it breaks down it is very obvious. Tonight, we were five cohesive people out on the floor each time”

The Pioneers believe that their defensive mindset in a game will help lead to offense. Against Sonoma State, they scored 26 of their 71 points of turnovers. Against San Francisco State, they scored 23 of their 74 points off turnovers.

“When we play good defense, it leads to our offense,” said junior guard Stephanie Lopez, who is fifth in the conference in steals per game. “We concentrate at practice to always put an emphasis on defense and everything else will come. It is hard to score on us when we are running our defense correctly.”

Lopez is also averaging five assists per game, good for second in the league, as she continues to be a catalyst both defensively and offensively.

“It all starts with Stephanie Lopez,” said Barcomb. “I think she is a tremendous point guard. She is a great floor general. She sees the floor incredibly well and then what happens is she gets us going and then more people want to share the ball. Because of her passing more people are open and we just have this unselfishness about making the extra pass.”

Although averaging 11.3 points a game, Lopez would much rather help her teammates score than herself.

“I love distributing the ball. For me, it’s better to make a pass and get the assist than to score two points,” said Lopez, who transferred to CSUEB this season. “I think a good, solid pass is just as good as two points.”

If there is one aspect of the team that needs improvement, it is on the mental side of the game, according to junior Micah Walker.

“Our focus, our mental focus [could be improved]. We want to play a complete basketball game each time we go out there,” said Walker. “There have been some games where we have put in 37 minutes, 38 minutes. We want to go that complete 40 minutes every night.”

Walker referenced the San Bernardino game in particular. In that game, on January 11, the Pioneers blew a 19 point second half lead on their way to only their second conference loss of the season.

The Pioneers will hope to play complete games as they go on the road for their next four contests starting next weekend at CSU Los Angeles and CSU Dominguez Hills.