Freshmen Rosebrooke Hunt and Leigha Moland led the Bakersfield College women’s basketball team with 18 points each in their college debut and the Renegades came away with a 75-67 victory over College of the Desert on Nov. 7.

Other Freshman Dakota Oliver came off the bench and delivered a double-double with 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting and 13 rebounds.

“I was thrilled with Dakota, she’s been injured and she comes out and played really hard,” BC head coach Paula Dahl said about the performance of the 6-foot-1 freshman from Stockdale High.

“We’ve got some phenomenal post potential,” Dahl said when asked what she liked from her players.

Dahl had talked to her team on several occasions about their lack of effort on defense, as they had a hard time stopping Desert College players from making jump shots and fighting through set-screens.

BC shot just 34 percent from the field but was able to get a huge lift at the free-throw line, going just 25-for-40; offensive put-back attempts played a big part of getting free-throw opportunities. BC grabbed 32 offensive rebounds and had a total of 61 rebounds.

Coming off an ACL tear last season, guard Claesey Tarver struggled to find a rhythm offensively going 0-for-8 with just two points. She did however get two assists, which helped her team close out the Roadrunners.

BC was down 50-48 after an 11-7 run by Desert College with 10:10 remaining. BC ended the run after some easy baskets in the paint going on an 11-4 run, leading 59-54. Desert refused to go away, cutting the Renegades lead to 68-65, with a 3-pointer by Desert guard Hana Qaqi who finished the game with 26 points with 7-of-15 shooting, including 5-for-11 at the three-point line.

In the game against Riverside City College on Nov. 8, BC gave away 33 turnovers and lost to the Tigers 59-53.

After a tough time in the previous game against Desert College, going 0-for-8 on her field goals, Tarver had a much better night of shooting. She went 4-for-10 from the field, including 2-for-6 at the three-point line, and scored a team high 13 points (the only Renegade in double figures) to go along with two blocked shots and three steals.

After 18 points each in the first game, Hunt and Moland combined for just 15 points on 6-for-20 shooting.

As a team, the Renegades shot 17-for-69 from the field, including 3-of-19 from the three-point line. With so many missed shots, BC was once again able to crash the boards effectively on offense with their length in the frontcourt, causing Riverside to foul them. However the Renegades weren’t able to capitalize, making only 16 shots out of 36 attempts.

With over 37.1 seconds remaining in the game BC was down by seven and it seemed they were trying to force turnovers instead of fouling. After the game Dahl explained what happened.

“We really didn’t break it down like we should have,” she said. “But I was yelling at them to foul.” During the final minutes, the Renegades were able to come away with steals and points at the other end using the full-court press to force the Tigers into turnovers.

BC, however, couldn’t stop Riverside from making shots when the Tigers were able to break the press.

“We’ve got a lot of fundamentals we’ve got to fix,” Dahl said. “We’ve got to have all of our kids geared and ready to go.

“We can’t have some here one night and others here another night. We have a lot to work on, but we’ll get there.”

In the game against Moorpark College on Nov. 16, the Renegades suffered a 60-48 loss to the Raiders. With their second consecutive loss, BC fell to -2 in the early season.

“It was our first road trip, and we have to learn how to be prepared,” said Dahl when asked her thoughts on the game. “We’re young and it (our performance) shows how young we are.”

Moland led the Renegades with 15 points and shot 9-for-14 at the free-throw line.

BC totaled only 12 points off the bench with Oliver leading the way with just six.

Riley Abraham presented a dominate post presence all game long according to Dahl.

“She just tore us up,” Dahl said. “We made poor adjustments and once we started making the adjustments it was better.”

Abraham led her team with 23 points, shooting 11-for-15 from the field and added 11 rebound for a double-double.

BC’s next game will be on the road Nov. 26 against Santa Ana College.