Women’s basketball: Lions fall to Cougars

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - It’s not even enough time to reheat day-old pizza, but

in just 90 seconds the Vanguard University women’s basketball fell into a

hole it just couldn’t get out of.

In the opening minute and a half, the Lions committed five turnovers

and gave up the first 12 points of the game en route to a 68-49 home loss

to Azusa Pacific in both team’s Golden State Athletic Conference opener

Tuesday night.

“After that poor early going, we just couldn’t get in sync,” Vanguard

Coach Russ Davis said. “All the credit goes to Azusa Pacific. We were

outplayed, outhustled, outcoached ... everything.”

It didn’t get much better after that opening 90 seconds. The Lions

didn’t score for over three minutes, while the turnovers continued to

pile up.

The defending GSAC regular-season champion Lions (7-3), ranked No. 9

in the NAIA national polls, played anything like a ranked team in the

first half, falling prey to the Cougars’ relentless defense as well as

the hot shooting of Catherine Solorio.

Solorio was 9-of-12 shooting from the field and scored a game-high 25

points for the Cougars (5-5). Stephanie Patten added 10.

Despite the poor play, Vanguard trailed only by five points midway

through the first half. The lead shrunk to four before Azusa Pacific went

on a 10-0 run for a 33-19 advantage.

Erin Edmiston led the Lions with nine points, while Kelly Boeke

chipped in with eight.

Rachel Fikse scored five of her seven points in the final minute of

the first half, cutting the Cougars’ lead to 10, despite 17 first-half

turnovers.

The second half started just like the first as the Cougars scored 11

of the first 13 points, jumping out to a 19-point advantage and never

looking back.

“We have to realize that every team is coming after us, so we have to

pick up our intensity,” Davis said. “We’ll see Wednesday if we bounce

back from this loss.”