Cats back alone in first place

The Saddleback women's basketball team rallied from an early deficit to beat Fullerton College, 70-52, on Friday night inside the Saddleback Gymnasium.  With the win, combined with a loss from Irvine Valley College, the Bobcats took over sole possession of first place in the Orange Empire Conference.

The night belonged to Kassidy Beach, who scored a season-high 32 points while collecting 13 rebounds.  Beach (pictured) was 12-of-21 from the field and 8-of-8 from the free throw line as the Hornets had no answer for her inside presence. 

Saddleback started slowly, falling behind 20-13 in the opening quarter.  The Bobcats were ice cold from the outside in the quarter, making just 1-of-7 shots from beyond the arc.  Beach had eight points in the opening quarter in keeping the Bobcats within an arm's length of a Fullerton team that shot close to 70% in the opening frame.

Saddleback rallied in the second quarter, scoring 10 of the first 13 points in tying the game at 23-23 after Kalynne Mendez drilled a three-pointer and was fouled on the play, making the free throw for a four-point play.  It broke a slump of eight straight misses from the outside and was a sign of good things to come.  Later in the quarter the Bobcats received back-to-back three-pointers from Shajade Banks and Mariana Mina in taking a 31-26 lead with 1:46 remaining in the half.  Saddleback would carry a 33-31 lead into the locker room at the intermission.

The second half belonged to Beach.  The sophomore from Los Alamitos scored 24 points in the half, including 14 in the third quarter alone.  She was 5-of-7 from the field while making all four free throws as Saddleback built a 10-point lead heading into the final quarter.

Beach then completed a three-point play to start the fourth quarter as the Saddleback lead grew to 55-42.  On the very next possession, Mina buried another three-pointer as the offense was clicking on all cylinders.  Mina then buried another basket from long rang on the following possession, forcing Fullerton to call a timeout with the Bobcats leading 61-42.  Saddleback cruised the rest of the way for a comfortable win.

Joining Beach with a big night were Mendez and Mina.  Mendez finished with 15 points while Mina had 11 points with a game-high seven assists. 

Saddleback was a perfect 15-for-15 from the free throw line for the night.  It was a great improvement after shooting just 63.4% from the free throw for the season entering the contest and broke a program record in the process.  The performance from the free throw line broke the record for highest free throw percentage in a game, edging the old record of .923 against Cypress College in 2017 when the team went 12-of-13 from the charity stripe.

Saddleback is now 18-5 overall and 6-1 in Orange Empire Conference play.  The Bobcats took over sole possession of first place after Irvine Valley College lost to Cypress College on Friday night, 54-47.

Saddleback travels to Irvine Valley on Wednesday night for a 7:00 PM game against the Lasers in Irvine.