Glendale women’s basketball continues turnaround with comeback against El Camino
GLENDALE — With a first-year coach and new blood in the form of seven freshman players, the Glendale Community College women’s basketball team is far removed from the squad that competed last season.
The Vaqueros have quickly distanced themselves from the ghosts of a 2015-16 campaign that saw them win just three games and go winless in 14 conference games.
This season’s Glendale squad has enjoyed an impressive turnaround and has gotten off to one of the program’s best starts in recent memory.
That turnaround continued Wednesday in a nonconference game against El Camino College.
Although the Vaqueros trailed for most of the contest, they surged back late in the fourth quarter for a 49-44 victory against the Warriors at home.
It was the fourth straight win for Glendale, which ran its record to 12-5. It’s only the third time in seven seasons that the Vaqueros have reached the 12-win plateau and the first time since 2014 when they ended with 15 victories.
“It is a very hard-working group that likes each other quite a bit and they get along great,” Vaqueros Coach Joel Weiss said. “I think that has a lot to do with our success so far. We try and challenge them and it’s fun to come to practice with this group.”
Luna Pasosian of Hoover High, who had 13 points and three assists, hit back-to-back three-pointers to key a 9-0 run for Glendale which saw the home team emerge from a four-point deficit with just less than 3:30 to play with a five-point advantage that led to the win.
Providence High product Katia Dabbaghian was with the Vaqueros last season, but missed a large portion of the season because of an injury. She said she can see a distinct difference between the teams.
“We definitely put in a lot more offseason work and we were really ready for this season,” said Dabbaghian, a sophomore who had five points, four assists and two steals. “We really came into this season wanting to be mentally tough and we always try and keep a positive attitude and help each other out.”
Glendale High product Kristina Sahakian added nine points and four rebounds and Paulina Glaviano chipped in with eight points and five rebounds.
Glendale was plagued with ball-handling problems in the first half, leading to an uncharacteristic eight turnovers over the first two quarters.
“We are one of the lowest turnover teams in the state and to have eight in that first half was just not like us,” Weiss said. “I kind of challenged them to take care of the ball more in the second half and have a little more ball security.
“I felt like we got good shots early, but we just didn’t have the confidence and the poise that they should have had.”
As a result, the Warriors (6-5) held a 13-9 lead after one quarter and a 23-18 advantage at halftime.
The teams played evenly in the third and went into the final stanza with El Camino still up by five, 38-33.
El Camino remained in the lead by four, 42-38, with 3:27 left in the game after a basket by Amiete Nyingifa. But the Vaqueros were able to turn things around in the final three minutes. Sparked by two consecutive three-pointers from Panosian, the Vaqueros went on a 9-0 run and had a 47-42 advantage with 21.3 seconds left.
The Warriors had three three-point attempts miss the mark in the final seconds, but did convert a layup. The Vaqueros sank two free throws in the final 16 seconds.
Kayla Bibb paced El Camino with 12 points.
Glendale, which hasn’t qualified for the playoffs since 2003, has a final nonleague tuneup Jan. 11 on the road against Santa Monica before opening Western State Conference East play Jan. 14 at Victor Valley.
