Lady Rams threaten to upset CCSF in 63-50 road loss
SAN FRANCISCO – The Gavilan College women’s basketball team played its best basketball of the year during the final game of the season Friday night at City College of San Francisco, the state’s No. 17 ranked team.
“One of our main goals at the beginning of the season was to play our best basketball of the season in late February, and the ladies definitely accomplished that goal tonight,” said Gavilan head coach Mike Girardi.
But the Lady Rams best was not good enough, as CCSF used a 9-0 run and eight free throws to com e out on top, 63-50.
At halftime, Gavilan (11-11, 3-7) led San Francisco, 29-21. In fact, the Lady Rams had the lead for 36 minutes of the game.
With less than four minutes remaining, San Francisco (22-5, 8-2) started a 9-0 run to take a five-point advantage.
Gavilan could not connect on its shots during the last couple of minutes and was forced to foul San Francisco to stop the clock.
“Cynthia Pinto and Nicole Donley had their best games of the year tonight.” Girardi said. “Both played inspired defense against CCSF’s guards.”
Pinto scored 20 points and Donley scored 17 (14 of the 29 first-half points).
“Our entire team gave a tremendous effort in this physical contest,” Girardi said. “I’m disappointed that we lost because we outplayed them for such a long period of time. However, looking at the big picture, all I see are six true student-athletes that believe they are able to accomplish anything and are willing to do the work to get the job done.”
Gavilan finishes the season with a No. 2 ranking in the state in team defense and a fourth-place finish in the Coast-North Conference. The Rams finished ahead of Chabot College and Mission College.
The top 28 teams in Northern California used to qualify for the playoffs. But due to budget cuts, the playoff field has been reduced to 16 teams. The top three teams in the conference will move on to the playoffs.
“Obviously, we wish 28 teams were going like last year because then we would still be playing, but we feel good with how we were playing at the end of the season,” Girardi said. “We are so proud of how the ladies committed themselves to the team concept. This season was definitely the most fun I have ever had coaching a team.”
