The Fresno City College women’s basketball team dominated in the first round of the Northern California regional conference. The women played Mission College last Friday and came away with a 109-64 victory.
The game was controlled by Nicole Chapple, Sarina Sayama and Taryn Sayama. Chapple scored 29 points, while Sarina contributed 23 points.
Chapple played hard collecting rebounds on both sides of the court. She turned offensive rebounds into two points and often found three point play opportunities.
Sarina Sayama scored multiple lay ups and three point shots while Taryn Sayama contributed with wide open layups and a couple of threes of her own.
FCC wore Mission College down with their unrelenting full court defence followed by their fast pace offense. The penetrate and pass offense FCC used led the Rams to wide open layups or open shots.
FCC started the game with a wide open lay up and within the first few minutes of the game, Mission College found themselves drowning on the scoreboard. Mission quickly became exhausted running up and down the court to the and it showed as multiple players were slow to get back to the defensive end of the court.
Meanwhile FCC managed to get to the other end of the floor to stop wide open shots.
This year’s Central Valley Conference Co-Coach of the year, Brian Tessler, did not allow his team to slow down for a moment.
Tessler continued to expect his team to play as if they were losing the game even with the game out of hand. He did not hesitate to give his team an earful when something did not go as planned.
The Rams worked hard though out the entire game, fighting for every loose ball and playing as a team. The team cheered each other when a teammate went out of their way to keep the ball in their possession or to keep the ball in play.
In the last few minutes of the game, Tessler pulled his sophomores out of the game to allow his freshman to play together.
The sophomores showed their pride for the FCC tradition by letting the freshmen know how they felt when multiple mistakes were made on the court. The freshman responded by playing better. They buckled down and started creating turn overs on defense and making the extra pass on offence.
With the victory, the Rams advanced to the second round. FCC is currently ranked No. 3 in the NorCal regionals of the State tournament. Their next step is to defeat No. 6 Sierra College.