No. 1 COS blasts Fresno City, 92-61

Damian Marquez, Visalia Times-Delta

The "Orange Out" worked.

College of the Sequoias administrators hosted a pre-game barbecue, handed out free t-shirts and encouraged students and fans to support the women's basketball team.

Students and members of the community showed up and filled the Dr. S. Thomas Porter Field House, providing the Giants with an electric playoff atmosphere.

The COS players took care of the rest.

The No. 1-seeded Giants cruised to a 92-61 victory over No. 8 Fresno City on Wednesday night to advance to the final round of the Northern California Regional playoffs.

"It was an unbelievable turnout," COS coach Ray Alvarado said. "It was a great college atmosphere and something great to be a part of. This is what I envisioned it would be like when I first got here. I thought we could get to the place to where we could get this gym rocking. I'm proud of the community and students. It was a great atmosphere for a game."

The Giants are hoping for a similar atmosphere one more time.

COS (29-3) will host San Joaquin Delta at 7 p.m. Saturday with the winner advancing to the state championships, which will feature the final four teams March 13-15 at Cerritos College.

Just 23 seconds into the game, it appeared as if COS was going to be in for a long night against the Rams, and it continued throughout the first part of the game.

Sophomore Corissa Turley, a Redwood graduate, had to leave the game after picking up her second foul.

At the 16:28 mark, freshman center Alexandria Tobie also had to hit the bench after she picked up her second foul.

To say the Giants were in foul trouble is an understatement. Fresno City was in the bonus at the 16:45 mark and in the double-bonus at the 9:07 mark.

Guard Tiana Henry had four fouls at halftime.

Fresno City converted on 15-of-20 free-throw attempts in the first half while COS shot just 3-of-5 from the charity stripe.

"It was a chaotic beginning, but the one thing that never left us was our defense," Alvarado said. "We stayed with it. We sputtered on offense a little bit, but once we got going, I felt good. I was worried about the fouls. I've never seen a game like that, but that's the way it goes."

Even with everything the Giants had to deal with, they still found themselves ahead 45-25 at halftime.

Alvarado rolled the dice a bit with 14:21 left in the half, putting Turley back in the game with her two fouls.

The gamble worked because Turley scored 10 points in less than five minutes and the Giants extended their lead to double digits.

"We were offensively off-balance," Alvarado said about putting Turley back in the game. "We had some different substitution patterns so I put her in. She's an experienced player and she knows what not to do, and she did a great job. She did what she had to do at that time. It was perfect."

Turley scored 12 points in the first half on 5-of-5 shooting, and added eight more in the second half to lead all scorers with 20.

Tobie bounced back from her foul trouble to score 17 points and pull down 12 rebounds.

The Giants had contributions from everybody on the team.

Latique Walton scored 13 points, Vanessa Mancera scored 11 in the first half, Hannah Ramirez scored 10 and Bailee Brown added eight points.

The COS guards also created plenty of havoc on defense. The Giants recorded 12 steals in the game, and forced 28 Fresno City turnovers.

"Our guard play has been a staple of our season," Alvarado said. "I thought we had the three best guards around. It showed today with the foul trouble and what not. They were able to rise to the occasion. And a credit to the bench because they did a great job today."

The work is not done for the Giants, who are now three wins away from their first state championship since 1987.

"We have to rally as a team and stay focused," Alvarado said. "We can't get ahead of ourselves. We know that there is a prize out there and someone is going to get. We're down to eight teams, we'll see if we can get it."

Photo by Ron Holman

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/sports/2015/03/05/jc-basketball-cos-blasts-fresno-city/24418937/