Cats win battle of top 25 teams

The Saddleback women's basketball team had arguably its biggest win of the season with a 68-61 win in overtime over Irvine Valley College on Friday night inside the Saddleback gymnasium.  The Bobcats are now 10 games over .500 for the season.

Saddleback and Irvine Valley was billed as one of the top games in the state on Friday, as IVC came in ranked No. 10 in the state in the latest California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association (CCCWBCA) State Poll and the Bobcats came in at N0. 22.  The game lived up to its billing with the Bobcats and Lasers having to play an extra 5-minute overtime period to decide a winner.

Saddleback jumped out to a quick start, opening up a 19-6 lead after the first quarter of play.  The Bobcat defense was the catalyst, forcing 10 turnovers in the opening quarter while the offense made 4-of-10 shots from long range in taking the early lead.

Irvine Valley chipped away at the lead in the second quarter as the Saddleback offense cooled off.  The Bobcats went dead silent from the outside, missing all five shots from beyond the arc while only shooting 10% from the field in the quarter.  Saddleback maintained a 30-26 lead at the break by making nine straight free throws down the stretch.

Saddleback's lead was four heading into the fourth and final quarter when Irvine Valley finally broke through to take the lead.  The Bobcats went scoreless for nearly three minutes to start the quarter and Irvine Valley tied the game at 47-47 when Lexy Gallegos made a jumper with 6:33 remaining in the quarter.  The Lasers took the lead with 5.5 minutes remaining and had a six-point lead with 3:50 remaining in the game when Saddleback finally got back on track.  Makayla Rutledge drilled a three-pointer with 3:38 remaining to cut the deficit to three and Kassidy Beach followed with another three-pointer with 1:09 remaining to even the score at 57-57.  The Bobcats would survive a final 32 seconds when Irvine Valley had two chances to win the game but came up empty.

The overtime period belonged to Saddleback.  The game was tied at 59-59 when the Bobcats took control.  Rutledge made another three-pointer with 2:21 remaining to give Saddleback a 62-59 lead.  The Bobcats then went to the free throw line for four shots after Irvine Valley fouled a Saddleback player and were called for a technical foul on top of it.  Saddleback made 3-of-4 shots from the charity stripe to grab a 65-59 lead with only 1:22 remaining in overtime.  IVC narrowed the lead to four in the final 45 seconds before Nina Saiki iced the game with two more free throws with 13 seconds remaining on the clock.

Saddleback finished 24-of-32 from the free throw line for the night, which was a big boost after entering the game shooting just 60.8% from the charity stripe for the year.  Meanwhile, the Bobcat defense forced Irvine Valley into 26 turnovers for the night.

Rutledge finished with a game-high 19 points on 4-of-10 shooting from long range.  Kalynne Mendez was 10-of-13 from the free throw line to finish with 14 points and a team-high four steals.  Saddleback had two others in double-figures in Beach (12) and Saiki (10).

Saddleback is now 14-4 overall and 2-0 in Orange Empire Conference play. The Bobcats have won five straight games.  Saddleback will try for six in a row on Wednesday when they host Riverside City College.  The Bobcats and Tigers are scheduled to tip off at 7:00 PM inside the gymnasium