The Falcons traveled to LA Southwest College and captured their second straight victory putting them at 2-0 in conference play.

The Cerritos women’s basketball team beat the Cougars 54-44 in a game Cerritos dominated, leading in nearly every statistical category.

Despite coming away with the victory the team still has some areas it hopes to improve on.

Cerritos shot only 42 percent from the free throw line making a total of 15 out of 35.

Head coach Trisha Raniewicz said, “It’s on us to get to the line against a physical team, and make them pay for being physical and knock down free throws.”

The first half of play between the two teams was all about defense with the half ending 17-14 in favor of Cerritos.

“I wasn’t happy with our first half,” said Raniewicz.

At the start of the second half Cerritos came out on a 9-0 run and took a 12 point lead.

Despite the Cougars many attempts to take the lead Cerritos never allowed them to come within four points.

The Falcons were not able to duplicate their shooting success from their previous game against EC-Compton. Cerritos shot 35 percent from the field against LA Southwest. However, Cerritos still managed to control the game.

Freshman forward Crystal Rodriguez said, “We’ve just learned to play with each other, before it was all individual now we’re all about the team.”

Raniewicz added, “I really respected how we came out from half time with a lot of energy.”

Second half issues were a weakness for the Falcons in preseason, but in conference they have found ways to execute.

In both conference games thus far Cerritos has managed to not only score more than 25 points in the second halves of both games, but also come away with wins.

The Falcons closed out the game against LA Southwest 54-44, and are now undefeated in conference play.

Cerritos forced 14 turnovers, 12 of which were steals, and out rebounded LA Southwest 37 to 20.

The Falcons struggled in preseason posting a 5-13 record, but since conference play has begun the team has come into their own.

“It feels more like a family,” Rodriguez said, “through the struggles we’ve learned to stick together.

The next challenge for Cerritos will be LA Harbor, who they will host Wednesday, Jan. 25.

LA Harbor is also 2-0 in conference after defeating Long Beach City and EC-Compton.

No matter the opponent the Falcons feel they have a chance to win every game in conference.

“Honestly if we work hard, and do what he have to do, it’s definitely all wins [from here],”Rodriguez concluded.