Porterville drops two games at COS tournament

A tough start to the 2021-22 season continued for the Porterville College women's basketball team. The Pirates lost both its games over the weekend in Visalia at the College of the Sequoias Crossover Tournament. On Friday, PC lost to Riverside City College 65-56 and on Saturday suffered a 76-47 defeat by Pasadena City College.

Friday's contest against Riverside got off to a good start. PC held numerous leads in the first quarter but went into the second trailing by just two points (12-10) after a RCC jumper at the buzzer.

But the Tigers pulled away in the second, closing out the half with a 7-0 run to go into halftime with a 31-19 lead. Porterville battled late and got as close as 49-44 after Mia Pengilly's jumper with 7:57 to play.

Pengilly posted a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Jazlynne Medrano led PC with 14 points and added 7 rebounds while Kaija Ambriz came off the bench to chip in with 10 points and 8 rebounds.

On Saturday, it was Pasadena that got off to the hot start as Porterville trailed 13-3 early and couldn't come back from a 29-10 first-quarter deficit.

Ambriz had another solid game, this time starting and putting up a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Medrano scored 12 points while Pengilly added 6 points and 10 rebounds.

Porterville fell to 0-6 overall and will get some time off before returning to the court on Dec. 2 for the three-day Shasta College Crossover Tournament.