Seahawk Women Use Power of the Press to Win

As the buzzer sounded to end the first half of Wednesday night’s game at El Camino College, Warrior players ran into the locker room exchanging high-fives.

But 19 turnovers later, the Warriors left the court hanging their heads. Harbor College had turned a 25-25 halftime score into a 72-52 rout at El Camino.

The Seahawks used a man-to-man full-court press in the second half to earn the victory.

“We got tired in the second half,” Warrior guard Stephanie Duke said. “People weren’t moving to the ball. We got down by 10 points and put our heads down.”

Harbor’s Bridgete Williams, a 5-foot-6 sophomore guard, led all scorers with 30 points, many coming off steals. However, her total was 10 points below her season average of 40.

Williams had to take over the game in the second half.

“I am the team scoring leader,” Williams said. “I had to step up my game.”

It was El Camino (6-16, 1-5 in South Coach Conference play) that made the big step from the Jan. 8 game between the teams. The Warriors suffered a 103-52 defeat at Harbor (24-2, 8-0).

“We were motivated,” said Tina Gross, El Camino’s leading scorer with 14 points. “But we started getting too overconfident in the second half. We beat ourselves.”

Coach Kristy Loesener believes the Warriors, state quarterfinalists last season, are not playing up to their potential.

“We’re not only inconsistent game to game, but half to half,” Loesener said. “We kept throwing the ball away. When you throw it away against Harbor, they convert.”

The Warriors remained calm and were able to beat the press in the first half. The success was startling to them.

Said Gross, “I was thinking, don’t get too excited.”