Lady Golden Eagles take College of Sequoias to end in thrilling tourney finale

After taking trading baskets with College of the Sequoias, the Lady Golden Eagles, 8-7, managed to stay in the game, but COS, 12-3, held on to defeat the Golden Eagles and win the tournament 56-53 in a game of equally matched teams.

The narrow loss to COS sent a message to other Central Valley Conference opponents that this year’s version of Golden Eagles basketball is a force to be reckoned with.

 West Hills tied the game at 45 on two free throws by Vicki Monia with about nine minutes left in the second half. Despite some brilliant play from Jayla English, who almost single handily kept the Golden Eagles in the game, COS kept West Hills at bay. English actually have her Lady hoopsters a 48-47 lead with just five minutes left with a pair of free throws. COS scored to go up by one. Nereyda Padilla hit a free throw to tie the game and  with a little over three minutes left.

With a little over a minute left in the game Monia was fouled and made both free throws to pull her Eagles to within two points, but that was all the West Hills ladies would get as COS hung on to win the inaugural Golden Eagle Classic.

Lemoore’s Arista Battle was named to the All-Tourney team for her excellent play throughout the tourney. The MVP award went to COS’s Tyricia Payne, who supplied much of the heroics in the final game for the Giants.

Battle scored 14 points in the tourney-ending loss to the Giants. Her teammate, English scored a team-high 16 points for the Golden Eagles. Payne scored 20 points for COS.

Saturday’s results

The West Hills College women’s basketball team is enjoying some home cooking. On Saturday night the Golden Eagles, playing in the confines of their own arena, outlasted Modesto Community College 53-45 to advance to Sunday’s (Dec. 22) title game in the inaugural Golden Eagle Classic. Saturday’s victory was the second of the tournament and today (Dec. 22) the Lady Eagles will play powerful College of the Sequoias in the finale.

The title game will begin promptly at 4 p.m. today (Dec. 22) in the Golden Eagle Arena. The Golden Eagles improved to 8-6 on the year after winning their first two tournament games. COS comes into Sunday’s game sporting an 11-3 mark.

On Friday the Lady Eagles won their tourney opener, 71-60 over Southwest Community College from Los Angeles.

On Saturday, West Hills College Lemoore had a difficult time pulling away from Modesto and even trailed 28-22 at the halfway point. However, a strong second half and some steady play from the Eagles put them back into the game.

The Golden Eagles finally caught up to Modesto with about nine minutes left in the game, taking a 38-36 lead. They never looked back. Belgium exchange student Dilay Somnez scored when she stole the ball and took it the length of the court for a layup and an Eagle 40-38 advantage.