Winning continues for Glendale Community College women’s basketball

GLENDALE — For the third time this season, the Glendale Community College women’s basketball team has strung together a streak of three straight victories.

But this run might prove more important than the other two.

After a 52-44 victory over visiting Citrus on Saturday afternoon, the Vaqueros improved to 3-0 in Western State Conference Eastern Division play.

The win improved the Vaqueros’ record to 15-6 with a huge slate ahead.

Glendale is back in action at Los Angeles Valley College (14-6, 1-1 heading into Saturday) on Wednesday before a conference showdown Saturday at home with Antelope Valley (9-12, 3-0).

“I’ll tell you this, Citrus’ record does not indicate how scrappy and hard they play,” Glendale Coach Joel Weiss said. “We took a big lead early, but we knew we were going to have to play all 40 tonight.”

Providence High alumna Katia Dabbaghian led GCC with 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals.

Though Citrus’ 5-14, 1-2 mark in conference play is hardly sterling, the Owls gave the Vaqueros a battle due primarily to the efforts of sophomore forward Marisa Brown.

The Bishop Amat High product was stellar, as she hit nine of 13 field goal attempts and finished with a game-high 28 points and six rebounds.

Brown helped her squad rally from a 32-22 deficit midway through the third quarter with six of her team’s points during an 8-0 run as Citrus trailed, 32-30, after three quarters.

Glendale calmly responded to the challenge with a three-point play to open the fourth quarter from Dabbaghian.

Dabbaghian kicked off what turned out to be a 7-1 run that ended with her own steal and lay-up the other way with 5:47 remaining, which put Glendale up, 39-31.

“[Citrus] had all the momentum and energy at the end of the third quarter,” Dabbaghian said. “We just had to pick up our own energy and have positive energy. We used that energy defensively to shut them down.”

Though Brown responded with an inside bucket, she and her Owls never cut their deficit to less than six points as the closest they pulled was 41-35 with 4:07 left in the game.

This time, freshman forward Brooke Radcliff (Burroughs High) countered with a three-pointer followed by a jumper from Celeste Miller as Glendale reasserted itself and never looked back after taking a 46-35 advantage with 2:48 left.

“We moved together on defense in the fourth quarter and we told each that we couldn’t foul anymore and give them free points,” said Glendale sophomore guard Paulina Glavino, who scored five points.

Radcliff finished with 12 points and six rebounds for Glendale, while Miller added eight points and seven rebounds.

The contest couldn’t have started any better for Glendale or worse for Citrus.

The Owls missed their first eight field goal tries, while Glendale raced to a 9-0 lead and eventual 16-5 advantage after one quarter.

Citrus pulled to within 18-16 at the two-minute mark in the second quarter before the Vaqueros closed out the first half with a 6-2 spurt to lead, 24-18, at the break.

“You can’t really look ahead because every game matters,” Dabbaghian said. “It doesn’t matter if they have the best record or not because a loss is a loss and a win is a win no matter who you play. We have to play every game with the same mentality that we have, which is to win.”