West Hills College Lemoore Lady Eagles beat Porterville as they climb conference ladder

The Golden Eagles took a step in the right direction Saturday night when they beat visiting Porterville 48-40 to improve to 1-1 in conference play.

Little less than a year ago, in its first season of women’s basketball, West Hills College Lemoore went 1-11 in conference play and 5-21 overall. It has been quite a turnaround for Coach Andrea Picchi’s program.

The win came just days after a narrow loss to 14-5 College of the Sequoias. The Tigers gave up an 11-point lead and watch as the Lady Giants stormed back to win 62-57 in the conference opener.

Against Porterville, the Lady Eagles used a big first half and then held on in the final period for the victory and a 1-1 conference mark. West Hills Lemoore is 10-8 on the year.

The Lady Golden Eagles will face their biggest challenge on Wednesday when they host conference-leading Fresno City College, one of the top teams in the state, ranked No. 1 in the Northern Section and No. 2 in the state. Fresno City comes into Wednesday’s game with a 2-0 mark in the conference and an overall record of 17-2. Game time is 5 p.m. in the Golden Eagle Arena.

In Saturday’s game West Hills took a commanding 33-21 lead into the half. The Lady Eagles were led by freshman forward Jayla English who scored 12 of her 18 points in the opening stanza. But English and her teammates could do little in the second half but hold on as the Pirates tried to close the gap, once closing to within two points before West Hills finished with a flourish to hold them off.

West Hills was outscored 20-15 in the second half as Porterville slowly chipped away. The Lady Eagles couldn’t buy a basketball for much of the second half. The Pirates Nayeli Colunga led her team with 16 points while Alia Alvarez chipped in with 11.

For the Golden Eagles, Jordan Lasiter scored nine points to complement English. Kalia Parker contributed six points while Jenny Gallegos and Erista Battle each had four.