The Lady Raiders moved to (2-0) last night in their conference home opener with a 67-56 victory over the visiting Cuesta College Cougars.

The Raiders jumped on Cuesta from the start and had a 25-7 lead in middle of the first half.  The spark was fueled by freshman Kathleen Avery who had 10 points in the first half alone and eventually finished the game with 14 points.

“Coach told me to be confident,” said Avery. “So it was much easier to be comfortable and score.”

Defense was the key to the game, as they held Cuesta to just 23 points in the first half. Moorpark dominated the first half as they went into the locker room with a 42-23 lead at halftime.

Things really picked up in the middle of the second half when Cuesta started to press.  The press caused Moorpark to turn the ball over, which in turn led to easy layups for Cuesta at the other end of the floor. With 6 minutes to play, Cuesta had cut the lead to just 11 points.

Just when the fans thought that Cuesta was going to make this game a close contest, sophomore guards, Charnae Thomas and Ashley Samson used their experience and composer to guide their team to victory.

Samson led Moorpark with 18 points. Thomas chipped in with a double-double of her own scoring 11 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

“It’s always nice to start strong in conference,” said Thomas. “But, it is a long season and we can’t get complacent, we have to keep getting better.”

The Lady Raiders are (10-7) on the season and look to go (3-0) in conference Saturday night at Raider Pavilion against Pierce College at 5 p.m..