Last
season, the San Diego Mesa Tournament
wasn’t very kind to the Cerritos College
women’s basketball team. Although they
reached the championship game of the
tournament, by the time it was over, the
Falcons had lost two of their starters
for the season. This year, the team came
out of the tournament with as many
losses as they did injured players –
zero. Cerritos (3-0) swept through all
three opponents to capture the
tournament championship. The Falcons
will now enter the Glendale Tournament
this weekend and open with Fullerton
College at 1:00 p.m. on Friday.
Sophomore forward
Maltresa Neely (Downey HS),
who was lost for the season last year as
a result of an injury at the San Diego
Mesa Tournament, made a grand return by
averaging 16 points and 7.3 rebounds in
the three games to be named to the
All-Tournament team. Joining her on the
all-tournament team was freshman forward
Mercedes Taylor (Gahr HS),
who scored 13 points and had nine
rebounds in the semi-final game.
The Falcons opened with a close
58-54 win over Fullerton College and
followed that with a 93-64 drubbing of
Rio Hondo College to send them to the
championship game. In that contest, a
64-60 victory over Irvine Valley
College, Neely scored 19 points and
pulled down 10 rebounds, while sophomore
forward
Genesis Lewis (Paramount HS)
finished with 15 points and five boards.
In the opening game win over the
Hornets, Cerritos received double-digit
scoring from four different players,
with sophomore guard
Tiffany Wilson (Mayfair HS)
leading the way with 16 points, while
freshman guard
Arielle McClellan (Paramount
HS) added 13 points. Joining them
were Neely (11 points, seven rebounds)
and Lewis (10 points, nine rebounds). It
was even more balanced in the win over
the Roadrunners, with five players
finishing in double-figures, while nine
of the 12 players each had at least one
rebound or assist. Neely (18 points,
eight rebounds), Taylor (13 points, nine
rebounds, four assists), Lewis (11
points, six rebounds, three assists) and
McClellan (10 points) all played well.
They were joined by freshman forward
Dominique Washington (Long
Beach Jordan HS), who came off the
bench to score 12 points and pull down
six rebounds.
