Bakersfield women's basketball drops Santa Ana in thriller, 60-58

CCCAA Women's Basketball: Scoreboard l Standings 

SANTA ANA, Calif. – It's always hard to beat a solid team three times in a year, but on Tuesday night that's exactly what the Santa Ana College Women's Basketball team tried to do, as they played Bakersfield College for the third, and hopefully, the final time of the year.

In the first two games, the Dons won convincingly by 18 points in both. Tonight, the Renegades turned the tables and stayed just in reach to pull off a comeback to defeat Santa Ana 60-58.

Santa Ana started with a 20-11 lead by the end of the first quarter but lost some of the momentum in the second quarter as the Renegades cut the lead to seven (31-24) at the half.

Bakersfield continued to chip away at the Dons lead in the third, outscoring them 18-16 in the quarter to make it a five-point game going into the fourth.

The Dons tried to hold on their slim lead, showing some urgency and pushing the score to 51-44 with 9:05 left in the game. In the next eight minutes, Bakersfield would go on 16-7 run to storm back and take a two point lead (60-58) with 28 seconds left. Santa Ana went for the win with a three-point attempt from Sally Morris but it wouldn't go down, resulting in the two point win for the Renegades.

Cheryl Caldera led the Dons in scoring with 19 points while Gianna Luna (9), Cailey Vitug (10) and Alexis Casillas (12) combined for 31. The Dons bench helped with Alexis Smith scoring seven and Brianna Sanchez grabbing 11 rebounds.

The loss drops Santa Ana's record to 5-5 overall while Bakersfield improves to 4-7. SAC will play their next game at the Grossmont Tournament on Thursday, Dec. 28^th at 5:00 p.m. against Citrus College.

(Courtesy Santa Ana Athletics)