Citrus Gives Up Big Lead; Downed in Semi-Finals

Moorpark, CA -- The Citrus College Women's Basketball team suffered just its second loss of the 2012-2013 season on Saturday evening when they went head to head with the tournaments host and 13th ranked Moorpark College. The Owls held a lead as large is 14 points, but the Raiders rallied and downed Citrus 65-57.

Moorpark would score the contests' first points, but the Owls quickly scored the next four points to take the lead and then held on to it for quite some time. The Owls would use a small 7-0 run midway through the first to take an 18-12 lead. The Raiders would break a four minute scoring drought shortly thereafter but a trey from freshman Jaelyn Wilson and a fast break layup from freshman Natalie Lam gave the Owls a 23-12 lead with just over six minutes to go.

Citrus would push their lead to 13 points after a layup from sophomore Sarah Rebibo making it 32-19. Moorpark would cut the lead before the half, as the Owls went into the break up 35-23.

Sophomore Ella Rodriguez would open up the second half with a bucket that gave the Owls their biggest lead of the night 37-23, but things began to unravel shortly thereafter for Citrus. Over the next five minutes the Raiders went on an 11-0 run to cut the Owls' lead to three at 37-34. Citrus rallied pushing their lead back to four, but Moorpark made a run knotting the game up at 44.

Rodriguez would answer for the Owls with a pair of baskets that put Citrus back up 48-44 with just under seven minutes to go. Shortly thereafter Moorpark took its first lead with 6:30 left. The Owls would tie it back up at 50 all with 5:25 to go, but the Raiders closed the game on a 15-7 run beating Citrus by 8.

In the loss, freshman Jaelyn Wilson led the way with a season high 17 points. Wilson also added 10 rebounds. Rodriguez poured in 15 and grabbed a team high 13 boards, while Rebibo scored 10 and recorded a team high three assists. With the loss, Citrus falls to 6-2 on the year. The Owls will try and rally on Sunday when they take on Santa Ana Colleg at 2:00 PM in the 3rd Place Game.