Community college women’s basketball: Pirates look to put past

behind

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - The road to Stockton had a bit of a rough beginning

for the Orange Coast College women’s basketball team. The Pirates opened

the Southern California Regional playoffs with a “poorly” played game

against visiting Cerro Coso, OCC Coach Mike Thornton said Friday.

Though Coast won, 73-52, Thornton and the Pirates (24-8) are hoping

they have gotten their bad game out of their system as they host Palomar

in the second round tonight at 7.

“It doesn’t matter who we play, we just have to play better,” Thornton

said.

OCC, which is on an eight-game winning streak, vowed to sweep the

second round of the Orange Empire Conference season and now its goal is

to reach the state’s final four in Stockton. The Pirates would need to

win their next two games to do that.

“We didn’t play our best, but we pulled out the win (over Cerro

Coso),” said starting point guard Nancy Hatsushi, who scored a game-high

16 points Friday. “We could play a lot better. We did come out in the

second half and played the defense that we can, and that was a plus.”The

Pirates, who start four freshmen, are also led by team captain Kyra

Melville, a sophomore forward who scored 13 points Friday.

Melville and Hatsushi earned All-OEC laurels this season. OCC guard

Lindsey Galasso, forward Candice Quiroz and center Charlenda Van Buren

round out the Pirates’ starting five. Van Buren has shown steady

improvement throughout the season, which has resulted in a solid inside

game for OCC. She grabbed 10 rebounds in the win Friday.

Palomar advanced to Tuesday’s action with a 53-44 upset of host Santa

Barbara Friday.