Mustangs Women’s Basketball won their second game by beating Fresno in the second round of the Jocelyn Mancebo Tournament on Nov. 2.
Halfway through the first quarter, the Mustangs were in a close battle with the score being 11-5 with 5 minutes left.
The Mustangs ended out strong in the first with No. 1 Kiara Council hitting 2 three-pointers making it 22-10 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Delta played great defense getting lots of steals. They forced three different 10-second violations on Fresno meaning Fresno couldn’t get it passed half-court because of the Mustang’s defense. The score was 38-28 at halftime
Head Coach Gina Johnson praised the team’s defensive effort and is optimistic about the season.
“Defense is our number one, always. We’re always trying to focus on team play and we’re trying to learn different styles of defenses so the girls are aggressive minded but we are still learning so that’s why we had some fouling situations that we have to get better at, you know, hoping we will improve because we’re very young,” Johnson said after the game.
The Mustangs only have three returning players from the previous season No. 0 Kathreen Noa, No. 1 Kiara Council, and No. 21 Grace Brown.
In the second half, both teams went back and forth with Delta matching the scoring of Fresno. Council hit another three-pointer to end the third quarter making the score 60-45. Delta pulled away in the fourth quarter with good defense and rebounding by Forward No. 21 Grace Brown.
Brown says the team expects her to play her role defensively.
“I just feel like that’s what the team expects of me to play good defense and to rebound and be tough on the glass. I gotta rebound boxout and everything will look up from there because I trust that my teammates will do everything else right.”
Guard No. 10 Fajr Cuthbertson contributed defensively and hit a couple of shots on the offensive end as well. She says they can build off the win.
“We are proud of the win but we can build off this win by pushing the ball up more and moving the ball with cutting, we do good sometimes we’re a little stagnant but we will clean it up.” Cuthbertson said after the game “I feel like we can win the tournament as long as we stay consistent on offense and defense.”
Delta ended up finishing second in the tournament, losing to Laney College in the championship 76-71.
The team is 2-1 on the season and they go on a long road trip their next home game isn’t until Dec. 28 against Santa Rosa.
The Mustangs next tournament is the Round Robin Tournament. They play against San Francisco located in Santa Rosa and it runs Nov. 16th and 17th.
