Lasers women defeat Santa Ana, 62-52
2012 Homecoming (Tameem Seraj)
IVC women’s basketball team toppled Santa Ana in the homecoming game last Wednesday night. Festivities and free food attracted a larger crowd to the game.
Halftime featured the main event of the evening, the announcement of the homecoming king and queen. Tony Mota was crowned king and Kathleen Wong was crowned queen.
“We played good enough to win,” Lasers coach Julie Hanks said about Wednesday night’s performance.
The first half was very back and forth in the first half as the two teams exchanged leads. The game was tied at 24 before the Lasers made a push in the last five minutes of the first half to take a 33-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The teams had nearly identical field goal percentages in the first half with the Lasers shooting at 38.2 percent and the Dons shooting at 38.1 percent. The Lasers had a poor first half at the free throw line shooting just 2-6 for 33.3 percent.
Early in the second half of the game the Lasers opened up a double digit lead at 38-27 but the Dons got the lead down to two at 38-36 with 17:25 to play.
The Dons were ice cold for the next 10 minutes shooting just 1-15 and getting outscored 11-2 during the stretch.
The Lasers never looked back after that as they cruised through the last seven minutes to win 62-52. The Lasers got the win despite shooting just 2-12 from behind the arc in the second half.
A frightening moment occurred during the closing seconds of the game as Lasers sophomore forward Melanie Kashanchi collided with Don’s forward Anna Nguyen in midair with 5.1 seconds remaining.
Kashanchi received a blow to the head and was down for several minutes. Kashanchi received support from the applauding crowd and also her teammates when she got up and was helped to the sideline by the trainers.
“You’re beautiful Mel,” freshman forward Shomari McCorkle said to Kashanchi.
McCorkle and freshman guard Amber Wharton tied for the team lead with 14 points. McCorkle also added nine rebounds and four steals. Wharton had five rebounds and five assists. Kashanchi chipped in 11 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. The leading scorer of the game was Dons guard Janelle Flores who had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
With the win the Lasers improved to 14-11 overall and 5-2 in OEC play. IVC is a game behind both Fullerton and Cypress for first place. The Dons remain winless in conference games at 0-8.
“We need to have more intensity,” Hanks said in response to improvements for the next game.
The Lasers next game is tonight against Orange Coast College on the road. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.
king and queen (Tameem Seraj)
Womens BB (Tameem Seraj)