Ranked third in the state and playing its first home game, the Cerritos women’s basketball team was upset by Cypress College, 65-59, Wednesday at Cerritos.

Falcon forward Tiffany Amete said, “We tried our best, but we got lost. We need to learn to execute our plays.

“On defense we need to put pressure on the ball, and on offense we need to execute our plays.”

She added that the team needs to drive to the basket and kick the ball out to the open player.

In the first period Antares Vice scored three times in a row to give the Falcons a 6-0 lead.

Chrystal Johnson scored a jump shot to make the score 20-16. Marci Wong and Johnson hooked up to make the score 36-29.

The Falcons went into halftime winning 38-29.

In the second half, Johnson made a block to stop the Chargers from making the score 38-30. Marci Wong went coast to coast to make the score 47-36, Cerritos.

Later she scored a lay-up and a free throw to cut the Cypress lead to 60-59, but that was all Cerritos would score.

Falcon guard LaToya Rucker said, “In the second half we stopped playing tough, because we too casual.

“We let two 10 point leads fall out of our hands, because it was our first home game and we were nervous.”

She said that the team needs to work on its intensity on defense. “Our free-throw shooting was good, but our shots did not fall for us.

“We need to start playing more intense for the whole 40 minutes.”

Falcons’ head coach Karen Welliver that the team needs to learn how to put out teams earlier. “We always need work on our turnovers. On defense we need to block out and cover the shooters.

“We will bounce back from this loss. We have a good team.”