Women's Hoops Wins With 3--Not Basket, 3 Players Left In OT

The Pasadena City College women's basketball team redefined the phrase "playing short-handed" on Wednesday evening. The Lancers lost not only a 17-point lead, but lost three players fouling out in the fourth quarter as they went to overtime with just three players on the floor v. East Los Angeles.

Monica Menzies drove for the game-winning layup with eight seconds remaining to give PCC an improbable 73-72 victory in the South Coast Conference North Division battle on Wednesday. It was Sophomore Night for Pasadena, now 14-13 overall as it heads into the regular season finale on Friday, Feb. 20 at Rio Hondo (7 p.m. tip-off).

The Lancers have all but clinched a Southern California Regional Playoff spot and hope to even their division record to 4-4 with a win over the Roadrunners. PCC is tied with LA Trade-Tech for second place place behind state #1-ranked and North champion Mt. San Antonio.

By overtime, East LA also was down to four players (started with just five) but had essentially a 4-on-3 power play in the 5-minute OT. The Huskies took a 68-64 lead and held a 72-69 advantage after a basket by Allison Daville with 1:11 to go. A tired PCC trio of Menzies, Kamora Fletcher and Kimberly Dominguez mustered a sense of urgency on both ends of the floor to keep the hopes alive.  

A missed layup by Menzies was followed by Dominguez racing for the offensive board and a put-back basket, her only field goal of the game. After Fletcher grabbed a defensive rebound on an ELAC miss, Menzies then played hero to pull out the triumph.

For a brief moment in the OT, PCC almost was down to two players when Fletcher suffered a leg cramp, but interim head coach Alexa Mirzaian alertly used a timeout, which allowed Fletcher enough time recover and stay in the game. 

"I've never seen anything like it and to win with just three players on the floor was insane," Mirzaian said. "We've had a short roster for most of the season, so in practices we would run a triangle defense of three players. Who knew we'd actually have to use it in a real game! Kamora, Monica and Kim just played their hearts out in that overtime."

Coach Alexa Mirzaian is in elation after her team's victory

Fletcher, a frosh forward, poured in 31 points and pulled down 17 rebounds and Menzies scored 18 points with three assists as both played an ironman 45 minutes. Celine Bolton-Ford, who fouled out first in the fourth quarter, tacked on 17 points and 12 rebounds. East LA (13-14, 2-5) was paced by Sarah Ramos with 29 points, Daville's 18 points (four 3-pointers) and Jocelyn Garcia, who had 17 points.

With 3:21 left in regulation, PCC's Ava Chang was whistled for her fifth foul, allowing ELAC to remarkably have a 5-on-3 situation over the Lancers. But that went to a 4-on-3 when Garcia picked up her fifth foul with 1:16 left in the quarter. Ramos gave ELAC a 64-62 lead on a driving layup with 15 seconds to go. But Fletcher drew a foul and then sank two free throws that sent the game into OT at 64-64.

PCC led 19-15 after one quarter and went on a 17-0 scoring spurt with Fletcher making three consecutive baskets and the flurry capped on back-to-back, 3-pointers from Menzies and Fletcher. ELAC cut the deficit to 36-26 by halftime and whittled it down to 50-45 at the end of three quarters. 

Menzies, Paris Ngeam, Bolton-Ford, Dominguez, and Chang along with injured Lyndsey Valverde, lost for the season after 11 games, were honored in a pre-game ceremony for their 2-season Lancers careers. 

With Friday's games throughout the state, PCC holds the #22 position in the RPI ratings that determine the 24 SoCal Playoff seeds and right now would play at #11 Santa Barbara City if the postseason were to start today. The Regionals First Round is slated for Wednesday, Feb. 25. The CCCWBCA seeding meeting is on Sunday, check pcclancers.com for the team's official seed and opponent.