Donley leads way with team-high 20 in 55-42 home victory.
GILROY – The Gavilan College women’s basketball team remained undefeated in divisional play Friday – winning for the first time at home with an impressive 55-42 victory over visiting Chabot.
“Tonight was great,” said second-year head coach Michelle Mannisto, whose squad lifted its record to 2-0 in the North Division and 7-12 overall. “There was quite a bit of team unity.”
Before the start of the second half, the Lady Rams huddled up on their own and made sure everyone was on the same page.
They all were.
Freshman Nicole Donley netted 15 of her team-high 20 points in the second half – including three three-point buckets – while teammate Stacey Perrien added nine of her 16 points in the final 20 minutes.
“My shot’s been off lately so I came back and have been working on it, and just knew what we had to do today,” Donley said. “We really wanted it. We learned a lot through the season. This was our first real conference game so we wanted to come out and play well.”
The Lady Rams came out flat in the first half, though – falling behind by as many as 11 points before going on an 11-0 run in the final 4:28 to tie the score at the break.
During the first-half flurry, a Noreen Bailey trey got the Lady Rams going and then Donley banked in another trifecta to close the gap to 22-17. After a second missed free throw by Donley, freshman teammate Keisha Webster (eight points) got the rebound and scored on a putback. With 45 ticks remaining in the half, Perrien drained a three-pointer to even the score.
Gavilan – which has struggled to maintain leads through the final 20 minutes – came out gunning in the second half. Although Chabot kept pace up to 35-35, the Lady Rams kept pouring on the pressure – going on a crucial 11-1 run to take a commanding 46-36 advantage.
Back-to-back treys off the hands of Donley pulled the Lady Rams away, while Perrien’s three-pointer with 5:50 left made it a 10-point ball game.
The Gavilan shooters never let up – closing out the game in commanding fashion.
“We’ve learned so much from our coach,” said Donley of Mannisto. “She’s awesome and our girls are just great. We’re having a good time.”
The Lady Rams hope the good times continue in Wednesday’s road clash with Foothill College at 5:30 p.m.
