Fresno City men, women advance in NorCal Regionals
Fresno City College forward Jaffrey Stillman and his teammates wanted to make a statement Saturday night in their playoff opener.
The Rams did – and then some.
Third-seeded Fresno City opened the second half with a 5-0 run en route to a 111-71 victory over visiting No. 14 San Jose City in a NorCal Regional game.
The Rams advance to face visiting No. 11 Monterey Peninsula at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Fresno City (26-6) outscored the Jaguars 66-37 in the second half.
"Coach has been on us all week at practice to put a whole game together," said Stillman, who scored a team-high 22 points. "Normally, we would go out there and start out sluggish and end fast – and he told us don't let up for 40 minutes, and we didn't."
San Jose City (17-11) trailed 25-24 on a layup by former Roosevelt High standout Brian King Jr., but the Rams answered and went ahead 29-24 and never looked back.
Akil Douglas scored a game-high 25 points for San Jose City.
▪ No. 5 College of the Sequoias defeated No. 12 Cabrillo 76-70 in overtime Friday. Also, No. 13 West Hills saw its season end in a 66-57 loss to No. 4 Las Positas. The Giants (19-11) will face Las Positas on Wednesday.
Fresno City women advance – It took 12 minutes for Fresno City to find some separation. All it took was for a flagrant foul called on Skyline.
At the opening of the second quarter, Rams guard Toni Edwards was thrown to the ground and a flagrant foul was called. Edwards hit both free throws to spark a 15-0 Rams run that catapulted them to an 83-63 victory over No. 18 Skyline.
Fresno City (27-3) advances to the third round of the NorCal Regional against No. 10 San Joaquin Delta at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Still, Brian Tessler wasn't happy, even though he notched his 250th win as the Rams' coach.
"I'm disappointed with it," he said. "I did not think we played with a very positive attitude. That may be me included myself. I just didn't think we came to play for a playoff-type game, and I was disappointed how we handled certain situations."
Skyline's Stephanie Allen scored a game-high 24 points, while Sara Vasquez led Fresno City with 12 points.
▪ No. 16 College of the Sequoias fell to top-seeded City College of San Francisco 71-55, and No. 11 West Hills-Lemoore lost to No. 6 Santa Rosa 74-59.
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