Cats claw back against Wolverines

The Saddleback women's basketball team picked up its second win of the season with a 69-53 win at San Bernardino Valley College on Tuesday.  The Bobcats rallied from an early deficit to move above .500.

Saddleback was looking to bounce back from a cold-shooting night in their previous game on Friday when they couldn't buy a basket at Grossmont College.  The Bobcats righted the ship on offense while the defense stifled the San Bernardino Valley offense.

Saddleback started slow, falling behind 22-16 in the opening quarter of the game as the Wolverines came out hot and made 10-of-19 shots from the field in the opening quarter.  It didn't take Saddleback long to collect themselves, outscoring San Bernardino Valley 13-4 to start the second quarter.  The Bobcat defense held the Wolverines to only four points over the first 5:20 of the quarter while taking the lead.  Saddleback would finish the quarter on a 7-0 run, with Moanike'ala Scott burying a three-pointer with 29 seconds to put the Bobcats back in the lead at 34-31. 

San Bernardino Valley would never get even the rest of the way, as Saddleback built an 11-point lead with 1:12 remaining in the third quarter when Scott buried another three-pointer.  The Bobcats then received a big fourth quarter from Makayla Rutledge and Brianna Ruelas in putting away the Wolverines.  Rutledge scored eight points in the quarter to finish with a team-high 22 points in the game while Ruelas remained red hot from the free throw line (3-for-4) in finishing 10-of-11 from the charity stripe for the game to finish with 18 points.  Scott would finish with 14 points for the game.

Saddleback is now 2-1 to start the season.  The Bobcats will play again on Thursday at San Diego Mesa College at 6:00 PM.