Pirates fall in season finale to Cypress
COSTA MESA -- It wasn't the way the sophomores wanted the season to end, but for the Orange Coast College women's basketball team, an icy night of shooting led to a 58-28 Orange Empire Conference loss to visiting Cypress on Friday night inside the Peterson Gym.
The 28 points scored was the second-fewest in school history. The third game of the 1977-78 season -- OCC's first season of women's basketball -- had a lower offensive output (24 vs. San Diego Mesa).
Coast (11-18, 3-9) finished the night shooting just 18.4 percent from the floor (9-for-49) and 6.7% from 3-point range (1-for-15). Leading scorers for Coast were Tessie Pikula and Jenna Arnett with seven points each.
For the Chargers (19-10, 10-2), Friday's win cinched up a share of the Orange Empire Conference title. They were led by Samantha Soria, who came off the bench to score 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Sloan Turner added 12 points and seven rebounds.
Despite the rough finish, it was a stellar two-year career for OCC's four sophomores -- Pikula, Ashley Engeln, Jordyn Terukina and Amber Page. The three sophomores that played both years for Coast (Pikula, Terukina and Page) helped anchor one of the top teams in school history last year as the Pirates advanced all the way to the state Elite Eight before finally falling to Cypress in the quarterfinals.
