Down all game Saturday, the Lady Raiders basketball team could not make the game-tying shot, and lost to Oxnard 57-54.
The team played their best defense of the night only in the fourth quarter, which made it difficult for them to achieve success throughout the game when they were playing from behind.
Head Coach Kenny Plumer was pleased by the effort, but did not want to make excuses for how the team played.
“I thought they played very very well, our girls played very hard to play without our leading scorer and assist leader, Cydney Bolton,” said Plumer. “We basically had five players throughout the whole game and that’s asking a lot of them.”
Bolton was serving a two-game suspension for a technical foul she received in the last game Moorpark played. Without her, multiple players stepped up to lead the team. One of those players was Dagmar Ramirez. Ramirez made many plays throughout the game and scored when the team needed the points.
“I think in the beginning of the game I started off a bit sloppy,” said Ramirez about her play. “I started rebounding more towards the second half. I started driving in even more and got some shots up and also hit some foul shots.”
Another player who scored for Moorpark and made plays when they needed them was Sydney Perry. Perry also made key plays down the stretch to get the Lady Raiders to within striking distance on Oxnard.
Perry stated that the team will just continue to practice hard in order to get better and improve.
“We’re always working hard to get better,” said Perry. “Every game is different, every practice is different.”
The Lady Raiders will take on Ventura College which is undefeated in the conference play. They will still be playing without a full and healthy team and will be subbing in players.
Ramirez said that for now, the team will be struggling a bit without the benefit of a full bench, but she felt they can overcome it.
“We are just missing a couple of players right now,” said Ramirez. “Once they come back, I think we’ll even out. I think we can manage, as long as we stick together as a team and put our heads together.”
Wednesday night, the Lady Raiders will take on rival Ventura College on the road. The team will play in front of their home crowd again on Wednesday Feb. 10 against Pierce College at 5 p.m.
