Leading by 10 with four minutes left in the game, victory was far from guaranteed for the Moorpark College women’s basketball team.
The No. 9-ranked Glendale Vaqueros (21-5) continued to challenge the No. 1-ranked Moorpark Raiders (29-1) Saturday night, despite the home crowd roaring in the echoing Raider Pavilion.
Moorpark Coach Kenny Plummer drew up a play to outmaneuver the resilient Glendale defense, but Glendale surprisingly snuffed it out quick.
As time ticked, SoCal Player of the Year Breanna Calhoun passed the ball away with only four seconds on the shot clock.
Freshman guard Jazmin Carrasco caught the ball at the top of the key, ready to move.
Three seconds. She crossed over the charging defender, barreling toward the basket.
Two seconds. Help defense encroached closer.
One second. Carrasco squeezed between the trailing and help defender, floating the ball off her fingertips.
The ball sank into the net as the clock ticked zero. The basket counted plus the foul. Carrasco’s free throw extended Moorpark’s lead to 13, the team’s largest lead since the end of the first quarter.
With 3.5 minutes left in the game, Glendale could not recapture the momentum. Moorpark defeated Glendale 79-66, advancing to the state championships for the first time in 22 years.
Carrasco recalled the home crowd erupting and the opposing crowd going silent.
“It kind of just fuels us up more to just keep going,” she said. “Our crowd gets really into it, [Glendale’s crowd] not so into it. It kind of just feels like we’re letting the air out in a way, almost a relief.”
A relief for the Raiders, but a disappointing ending to the Vaqueros Cinderella story. It was their first season winning the Western State Conference East and their first time advancing in the SoCal regional playoffs. Like the Cinderella fairytale, time would run out, but they did not go easy into the night.
Glendale’s sophomore starters Cheyenne Jankulovski and Sylvia Vartazarian each pitched in at least 12 points and freshman wing Tess Oakley-Stilson piled on an incredible 22 points. But the effort was still not enough to overcome the powerful No. 1 seed.
Carrasco wasn’t the only player knocking down big shots for the Raiders down the stretch. Calhoun was involved with her ball distribution and her aggressive takes to the basket. She contributed on both ends of the court putting up seven assists, seven steals, and a 28-point stat line. Her seven steals were the most in a game by any Moorpark player this entire playoff run.
“I just feel like anytime you step onto the court you have to leave it on the court,” Calhoun said. “You only have four quarters to be able to have fun and do what you need to do in order to win. The biggest thing for me is getting my team involved and just coming out with a W, knowing that we had fun playing the game.”
The Raiders spread the wealth among the team, making sure everyone got involved in this game. Five players scored double-digit points including 10 points from freshman reserve Isabel Ayala. Each week during these playoffs, her minutes have gone up and she rewarded her coach’s trust shooting an effective 5-6 field goals in 28 minutes. The Raiders are going to need contributions from everyone as they set off to face the northern state teams.
“A lot of the NorCal teams are deep,” Plummer said. “They play around 10 and 11 kids at a time. So we have our hands full, we have to figure out how to combat that.”
So far this season, Moorpark has hurdled over any adversity thrown their way. After their only loss against East LA in week nine of the season, the Raiders went undefeated in conference for the first time in 31 years, they swept the SoCal regional playoffs and advanced to the state finals for the first time in 22 years and after setting a school record of 30 wins, they may go on to win state, another milestone Moorpark has never achieved before.
“We really turned on the jets because they hate losing,” Plummer said. “They really hate losing, the girls are just so competitive with each other that they just hate losing more than they like winning.”
Moorpark will play the state championship tournament on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, if they continue advancing. Their first game is against NorCal’s No. 4 seed College of the Sequoias (28-3) on Mar. 15 at 7 p.m. at Ventura College, a cross-county stadium Moorpark is very familiar with.
“I think it helps that we didn’t really have to travel anywhere,” Carrasco said.
“To have the state finals in our backyard is really going to bring our fans out,” Plummer added. “We look forward to playing in front of our fans and that provides that extra energy, or maybe you want to say provides that extra depth, for the team that we are lacking for in bodies, we get it from the fans.”
The Raiders will certainly have their hands full, but they are ready for the challenge.
“It’s going to be really exciting because it’s teams we haven’t seen, but our coach prepares us well and we should be able to get through it,” Calhoun said.
“I think it’s all just super fun for us,” Carrasco added. “I think we’re just enjoying having the season and just continuing to keep playing together like we don’t want to stop, we just want to keep going.”
Outstanding Statistics:
Glendale:
03 Cheyenne Jankulovski: 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 turnovers, 14 points on 7-13 FGA
05 Sylvia Vartazarian: 4 turnovers, 12 points
12 Penelopi Trieu: 6 assists
14 Tess Oakley-Stilson: 22 points on 8-13 FGA
Moorpark:
10 Emily Herring: 5 rebounds, 11 points on 4-5 FGA
21 Jazmin Carrasco: 17 points
22 Breanna Calhoun: 7 assists, 7 steals, 4 turnovers, 28 points on 11-22 FGA
33 Kristen Sullivan: 4 turnovers
42 Barbara Rangel: 9 rebounds, 13 points on 6-10 FGA
02 Isabel Ayala: 10 points on 5-6 FGA
