Armenta's last-second trey lifts Pirates over Dons, 55-53

COSTA MESA -- Chanelle DiCroce's strong second half helped bring the Orange Coast College women's basketball team back from a 14-point deficit. Dayanara's 3-pointer with four seconds left made sure the comeback was made complete.

Armenta's trey with four seconds left broke a 52-52 tie and lifted the never-say-die Pirates to a dramatic 55-53 Orange Empire Conference win over the visiting Santa Ana College Dons on Thursday night.

Trailing by as many as 14 (37-23) early in the second half, the Pirates (17-9, 8-2 in the OEC) finally found a way to garner points against the battling Dons (14-12, 4-6).

DiCroce, who scored 17 of her 18 points and grabbed 11 of her 16 rebounds in the second half, started the comeback with a 3-pointer and Dayanara (11 points) followed up with a made layup and a 3-pointer of her own and suddenly, Coast was within six at 37-31 just over a minute after being down by 14.

Ashley Whisler stopped the run with a bucket to make it 39-31, but that would be it for the Dons for quite a while as Coast scored the 10 points over the next five minutes to grab a 41-40 lead.

From there, it was a back-and-forth battle. Trailing by two, SAC's Jazmine Johnson's made layup with eight seconds tied the game at 52, but Coast went right down the floor and DiCroce found Armenta and the sophomore guard calmly drained the game-winning 3-pointer with four seconds left.

Santa Ana raced down the floor and Whisler drew a Pirate foul on a desperation 3-point attenpt just as the horn sounded, giving the Dons a chance to tie the game with three made free throws.

But Whisler missed the first one, made the second one and tried the miss the third, but the Dons were called for a lane violation, ending the chance for overtime.

Davis finished with 13 points, Armenta with 11 and Jasmine Matar with 10 as the Pirates won their seventh straight to remain in the first-place tie with Saddleback, which defeated Cypress on Thursday night.

The Pirates will host Fullerton College on Wednesday night, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the final home game of the regular season. OCC finishes the regular season at Riverside on Friday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m.