MARAUDER WOMEN'S BASKETBALL HOLDS ON FOR VICTORY OVER CERRITOS

Photo by Bruce Jacobsen

VALLEY GLEN – The Marauder women's basketball team nearly squandered a 20-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but was able to hold on with a 53-49 victory over Cerritos College, Friday night at L.A. Valley College. 

Deja Smith led the Marauders (2-4) with 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting. She also finished with five rebounds. Katilin Stephenson finished with 16 points and a career-high 19 rebounds.

AVC outscored Cerritos 15-8 in the second quarter and 21-8 in the third quarter taking a 45-25 lead heading into the final quarter. A collapse in the fourth quarter by the Marauders helped Cerritos crawl back into the game, but AVC was able to hold on. Cerritos outscored AVC 24-8 in the final quarter. 

"We let up a little bit and we have to learn to work with each other. We came out with the w," Stephenson said. "We definitely need to come out strong tomorrow (against Ventura) because it's a big game for us. I think we did more today and we're starting to see improvement. This is a good win because we are coming off two hard losses." 

AVC committed 27 turnovers and shot only 30 percent from the field. The Marauders were 5-of-21 from 3-point range, two coming from Smith and Brieanna Perkins.