After playing their first 16 games away from Reedley, the Reedley College Lady Tigers finally played two home games last week. Coach Dan Kilbert's squad lost the home opener to West Hills Lemoore 64-56 before bouncing back Saturday afternoon with a 92-47 win over Taft College.
The split left Reedley with a 6-12 record.
Reedley returns to action on Saturday with a 3 p.m. contest in Visalia against the state's 17th team, the College of the Sequoias Giants. On Jan. 22, Reedley faces the state's 10th ranked team, the Merced College Blue Devils, in Merced.
Two scoring runs led Reedley to the easy win over the Cougars. The Lady Tigers extended a 6-5 lead by scoring 20 straight points on the way to a 26-9 first-quarter lead. After Taft scored the first basket of the second quarter, Reedley ran off the next 20 points to take a 46-11 lead. The halftime score was 53-15 in favor of Reedley.
Taft brought only seven healthy players to Reedley and lost two of them to injury in the first half. One of them, freshman guard Sam Washburn of Katy, TX, scored 42 of the team's 50 points in a Jan. 7 loss to Sequoias. Washburn had scored only two points before she was injured with three minutes and 49 seconds left in the first half.
Sam Mendoza and Aurelie Bevao led Reedley in scoring. Mendoza led the winners with 23 points. Both had 15 points in the first half. Bevao finished six 3-pointers and 21 points in the win.
Brianna Rodriguez made seven 3-pointers and led Taft (0-2, 2-14) with 22 points.
The Tigers dropped their conference opener to West Hills Lemoore 64-56 on Jan. 29 in Reedley. The game was tied at 29-all at halftime before West Hills took control by scoring 22 third-quarter points to only 10 for the Tigers. Reedley managed only two field goals in that third quarter.
Tristan Randle had 15 of her game-high 23 points in the second half to lead the Tigers. Sam Mendoza had all 11 of her points in the second half. All nine West Hills Lemoore players scored, led by Luziena Parks with 16 points.
By: Will Goldbeck