The Bakersfield College women’s basketball team lost one of its biggest games of the season Feb. 9, against visiting College of the Canyons.
Both teams came into the game 6-2, tied for second place in the Western State Conference, behind 7-1 LA Valley College. Canyons pulled away from the Renegades in the second half and earned a 75-55 win putting them a half game behind LA Valley for first place in the WSC.
With the win Canyons improved to 17-8 on the season, including winning seven of its last eight games. Canyons also earned a regular season sweep against the Renegades. Canyons beat BC 80-65 back on Jan. 16, at Canyons.
“We just panicked offensively and as we started to panic offensively, we stopped rebounding and different things like that,” BC head coach Paula Dahl said on her teams’ second half meltdown against Canyons.
Canyons took a six point 36-30 lead into the second half.
BC opened the second half on an 8-2 run and tied the game at 38, before Canyons went on a 22-2 run and ran away with the game as BC couldn’t recover.
“You know they (Canyons) were doing a good job of taking Emily and Haley out of the game,” Dahl said. “We started rushing shots and we struggled when we do that, I called a timeout and told them to stop looking at the scoreboard.”
Guard Emily Parks and Haley Huntington were limited to only six points a piece, with a combined of 4-for-20 shooting. BC was out rebounded 59-53 and shot 3-for-16 on the free-throw line in the second half.
BC will take its 6-3 conference record on the road Feb. 13, at LA Valley, a team in which they beat 55-49 on Jan. 19 at BC.
Dahl believes her team is confident and will be ready to go as they look to keep their conference winning hopes alive against LA Valley. The Monarchs are one and a half games ahead of BC for the first place lead. LA Valley also swept Canyons this season, winning both on the road and at home. BC (13-11) beat (6-19) Glendale College Feb. 6, 63-54 after going on the road and beating (8-16) Santa Monica College 71-64, which improved their winning streak to two before losing to Canyons.
After the game, BC learned that sophomore forward Mackenzie Odle has a possible meniscus tear. Odle did not suffer the injury in the game against Canyons. Her status on the conference battle against LA Valley is unknown.