Lady Clippers Bounce Back and Win Both Games in Week 3 of West Region Play

The Clipper Women's Basketball team had a great bounce-back week with two big wins against Pierce and Centralia to improve to 4-1 in conference play.

After their tough defeat to ranked Lower Columbia, the Lady Clippers honed in on how to get two big victories in this early stage of regional play.

The first opponent was the Pierce Raiders as the ladies continued their long stretch of road games to start the conference season. Although the Lady Raiders came in with only one win up until this point, the Clippers knew that they could not underestimate this team.

That being said, the Clippers got off to an amazing start in the first half — doubling up their opponents by a score of 41-21. The Lady Clips never stopped their offensive attack and kept up the tempo for the entirety of the game to win by a decisive score of 81-47.

Jaynee Tanner had her usual double-double performance, notching 15 points and 11 rebounds for the game. Mia Martinez had an amazing performance on both sides of the ball as she recorded 16 points, 8 rebounds, 11 steals, and 7 assists for the night.

It was truly a team effort as two other Lady Clippers finished the game in double-digit points with Dakota Carson (15) and Cristazia Cristobal (12) racked up their point totals, and three athletes finished the game with 5-plus steals for the game.

"Being able to sustain our level for a whole game is something we are learning and working on," said Women's Basketball Head Coach Darah Vining. "We are still learning to build that chemistry to keep it consistent through four quarters. The Pierce game was a great example of the team sticking to our standard and our non-negotiables. Our team performed very well, we had four people in double-digits, we had 22 assists, and 21 steals."

With a hearty victory over Pierce, the ladies now shifted their focus to their first regional home game of the season against Centralia. Much like Pierce, the Lady Clippers had to come into the game knowing not to underestimate the Trailblazers as their record is not a true reflection of how good of a team they really are.

Unlike the Pierce game, the Lady Clips got off to a rough start as shots were not falling and turnovers kept the game even for most of the first half. Not to mention that the physical Centralia defense did not allow the Clippers to execute their game plan and set plays, which really disrupted the tempo the Clips tried to set for the game. The Trailblazers capitalized on the opportunities that the Clippers gave them to head into halftime with a slim 29-28 lead.

The physicality continued in the second half as both Mia Martinez and Brielle Nueku suffered lower body injuries during the game. Martinez was able to return to the game but Nueku was sidelined for the rest of the match. Being one athlete down, the team knew they had to rally together and win not only for the team but for their injured teammate.

As both teams wrestled for the lead in a back and forth game, it all came down to the last minute. In a 53-all game, Dakota Carson stepped up in a huge way as she nailed the game-winning three-pointer with 34 seconds left on the clock. The Clippers managed to get some clutch defensive stops to close out the game as they escaped with the 56-53 win against the Trailblazers.

"It's already hard when we don't have that many subs, so when two people go down we all know we have to step it up," said Sophomore Guard Dakota Carson about the team's gutsy win. "I think everyone did a really good job of stepping it up and keeping up the intensity that we needed, especially on defense. Once we started getting more stops, it really helped the team with our energy."

Now, the 4-1 Clippers look forward to an away game in Auburn against the 4-1 Green River Gators on Wednesday, January 28 as they look to push their win streak to three. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. from The Swamp at Green River College's campus.