Through another whole team effort the VC women's basketball team routed visiting Los Angeles Pierce 101-47 Wednesday at the Athletic Event Center. Six Pirates had six players score in double figures, led by Sofia Torres-Reyes' 19 points, including five made 3-pointers. All nine Pirates who played scored and contributed across the statistics sheet as they posted the team's highest point total since a 103-63 win over Orange Coast on March 5, 2014. The win capped VC's 15th Ribbons of Life Breast Cancer Awareness Game held to support the Ribbons of Life Breast Cancer Foundation of Ventura.
Beginning midway through the first quarter, the Pirates (18-7, 7-3) turned a 12-10 advantage with 6:01 on the clock into a 46-13 margin in just over 10 minutes of game time. Kylie Gallick, Alisha Cruz-Lisberg, Kenya Edelhart and Torres-Reyes shared the scoring to close the first period on a 22-4 run. The stretch continued in the second with the Pirates outscoring the Brahmas 14-1 to stretch the lead to 33 points. Jasmine Glover and Dani Henley each hit three's in the period to assist the VC run. VC led Pierce 57-26 at intermission.
Ventura continued to overmatch the opposition in the third period, racing out 18-1 over the first six-plus minutes of play. Cruz-Lisberg sandwiched a pair of lay-ups around a triple by Torres-Reyes before Edelhart hit a pull-up J. Gallick scored back-to-back buckets followed by a Cruz-Lisberg deuce and two points by Tiernan Phillips. Ventura led 80-34 headed to the final stanza.
The Pirate Express kept rolling in the final 10 minutes of play with Talitha Draper and Alina Olivo getting in on the act, along with another seven points from Henley. Glover scored a lay-up with 50 seconds remaining to push VC past the century mark for the first time since scoring 100 points on Dec. 17, 2018.
Torres-Reyes added eight rebounds to her point total while Edelhart scored 16 points with six boards and eight assists in 22 minutes of play. Cruz-Lisberg nearly had a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds and Gallick posted her 16th double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 caroms. Glover added 12 points, eight rebounds and four dimes and Henley scored 10 with seven boards and three helpers. Olivo turned a strong effort with eight points and seven assists and Phillips pulled down eight boards. Draper totaled four points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals in the triumph.
VC next hosts Santa Barbara on Saturday Feb. 11. The 5:00 pm game will be preceded by a short ceremony honoring the Pirates' six sophomores. It will also be Girl Scout night, with all girl scouts receiving free admission to the game with a meet and greet and autograph session after the game.
Members of the VC Pirates and LA Pierce Brahmas take a pre-game photo with the honorary starters for the program's 15th Ribbons of Life Breast Cancer Awareness Game.
All of the honorary starters are breast cancer survivors.