After a long stretch of tournament play to begin the season, the Cerritos College women’s basketball team was finally able to play in front of their home audience for the first time this season.

The Falcons now sit at 5-10 on the season with their next game being an away game, against Pasadena Friday, Jan. 6.

In their game on Wed, Jan. 5 against Chaffey College they were able to come away with a 66-49 victory.

Coach Trisha Raniewicz was happy to capture the a victory in their home opener.

“It feels good to win,” she said, “It’s our first home game, we had a long stretch away and it just feel great to come together as a team and win.”

The Falcons jumped to an early lead and ended the first quarter up by 12 points (25-13).

During the second quarter the defense of Cerritos was able to hold Chaffey to score only three points, all coming from free throws to end the half up 37-16.

Cerritos maintained the lead throughout the third, where they would finish up 57-30 going into the fourth.

After surviving a late push by Chaffey, the Falcons were able to secure their fifth win of the season.

Freshman forward Mele Valele stated, “Our defense, thats what won the game.”

The defense of Cerritos forced Chaffey to commit 22 turnovers throughout the game, and the offense capitalized on the mistakes by scoring 22 points off turnovers.

The Falcons led Chaffey in most statistical categories, including assists where they finished with 16 total assists compared to Chaffey’s six.

Valele admitted the success to the offense was,”our teamwork and our passing.”

Raniewicz was was pleased with multiple aspects of her teams game stating, “I thought we put the team first, we were about us and not we, we shared the ball and played really good defense, and boarded.”

The Falcons held a slight edge in the rebounding category finishing with 43 to Chaffey’s 40.

Cerritos had three players finish in double digit scoring which was led by Kaylyn James who finished with 17 points.

Raniewicz knows that the team still has a long way to go but does not want to forget this win.

“We’re a little bit of a young team and so we’re still learning, each day when we come out here to practice we’re learning more and gettting better each day.”

She concluded with, “I’m really proud of the girls today, I told them to enjoy this win and we’ll get back at it tomorrow.”