Cats roll over Pirates

The Saddleback women's basketball team picked up a second straight win at the Fullerton College Tournament with a 90-40 victory over Porterville College on Saturday in Fullerton.  It was the 11^th win of the season with one more non-conference game remaining before heading into Orange Empire Conference play.

Saddleback was dominant on Saturday against a Porterville program looking for its first win of the season.  The Bobcats raced to a 29-4 lead after the opening quarter, allowing for the starters to get some rest while playing for a third straight day.

Saddleback scored the first 21 points of the game over the opening six minutes, with Kassidy Beach scoring eight points during the stretch.  Mariana Mina took over the rest of the quarter, scoring 13 points in the opening frame while making 3-of-4 shots from three-point range.

Saddleback then opted to get the bench involved with the game well in hand.  Shajade Banks, Kaleia Valdez and Rylie Hosokawa combined for 21 points off the bench in the second quarter as the lead swelled to 52-20 at the half on way to cruising to the win.

Saddleback would finish with four players in double-figures in Mina (15), Banks (12), Valdez (11) and Beach (10).  The Bobcats finished 14-of-39 from long range while outrebounding the Pirates 44-29 for the game.  Jamie Ponteras led the Bobcats with eight rebounds.

Saddleback is now 11-4 to start the season.  It is the first time the program has had 11 wins in a season since 2016-17 when it went 21-10 in making it to the second round of the Southern California Regional Tournament.  During that season, Saddleback was also 11-4 through the first 15 games of the season.  

Saddleback has the rest of the holidays off before returning for a non-conference battle at Cerritos College on January 2.  The Bobcats and Falcons are scheduled to tip off at 5:00 PM in Norwalk.