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West Hills Lemoore Golden Eagles beat Santa Ana in tourney final to win two of three
Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough as visiting Chabot College beat the Golden Eagles in the second round of the Don Warkentin Memorial Basketball Tournament 83-59, the final outcome fueled by a second-half surge that dropped the Lady Golden Eagles out of the championship round in their own tourney.
The loss dropped the Eagles to the consolation bracket, and on Sunday the Lady Eagles beat back a determined Santa Ana team 64-56 to win two of three in their own tournament. Michelle Brown, who scored 32 points in Sunday’s win, also tossed in 25 points in Saturday night’s loss against Chabot.
Let’s set the scene. The Lady Eagles wanted nothing more than to win the third annual tournament, named this year in honor of former WHC Lemoore President Don Warkentin, but in the opening moments of Saturday’s game, the Chabot Gladiators would have nothing of it.
Chabot came out strong in the first quarter, quickly scoring 10 straight points before the Golden Eagles’ Daja Roebuck ended the onslaught with a basket at about the six-minute mark. It didn’t get much better for West Hills as the Gladiators upped the advantage to 17-3 moments later and then took a 25-11 into the second quarter.
That’s when the momentum turned in West Hills’ favor. The Golden Eagles turned on the afterburners, and in one long stretch outscored Chabot 16-0 to cut the once commanding lead to just seven points at the two-minute mark of the half.
From that point on the Eagles outscored Chabot 10-2 to take a surprising 35-34 lead into the halftime locker room. The surge was fueled by Brown, who commanded the boards and scored nine second-quarter points to lead the comeback, finishing with a game-high 25 points – 57 for the tournament.
The Golden Eagles’ comeback included a three-pointer from Tiffany Smith with just nine seconds left to account for the halftime advantage. Roebuck finished with 11 points while Kiesha Loftin scored 10. Smith also scored 11 against Santa Ana in Sunday’s final.
But it was not to be as Chabot turned its defense up a notch and held the Golden Eagles to just 25 second half points to spoil West Hills hopes of a tourney victory and a spot in the title game.
Leading the Chabot charge was De’Zire Hall who scored 16 second half points to lead the Chabot comeback. She finished with a 24. Aiyanna Gallegos contributed 13 points in the Gladiator win.
Chabot outscored the Golden Eagles 19-2 to open the second half and was never seriously threatened the rest of the way.
The losses dropped the Golden Eagles to 6-8 overall. Sunday’s win against Santa Ana will be their final game before the Golden Eagles begin conference play with a game at Bakersfield College on Friday, January 30.
