Pirates survive and advance with 85-62 win over Beavers

COSTA MESA -- The top-seeded Orange Coast College women's basketball played a game of deja vu on Saturday, playing a like-minded L.A. Trade Tech squad, but in the end, the Pirates pulled away and topped the Beavers, 85-62, in the second round of the Southern California Regional playoffs on Saturday night inside the Peterson Gym.

With the win, the Pirates (28-1) will advance to the third round of the regional playoffs and will host rival Irvine Valley (21-8) on Saturday, beginning at 7 p.m. with the winner advancing to the CCCAA State Championship Tournament.

This is the first playoff home win for the Pirates since topping L.A. Valley, 63-61, back on Feb. 24, 2016.

Karina Cabrera led Coast with 24 points, six assists and four steals, while Meghan McIntyre added 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. In fact, all five OCC starters reached double figures, including Gabby Samiy (16 points, six rebounds), Annie Trinh (16 points, four rebounds) and Savannah Seiler (10 points, 14 rebounds, four assists).

Coast rode its starting five for most of the game, while the Beavers (15-15) played their starting five for the ENTIRE game. Alyssa Ke paced the Tech offense with 16 points, six rebounds and nine assists. Leah Saynes and Pamela Gonzalez each had 15 points, while Jaden Hill-Massarotti added 13 points.

Both teams played a very similar style of basketball, using athletic guard play to produce either layup opportunities or 3-point opportunities from teammates and both teams came out firing in the opening quarter.

LATTC was 10-of-15 from the floor in the opening quarter and jumped out to a 24-20 lead on the Pirates after the first 10 minutes of play. Cabrera kept the hosts in the game early on with 11 first-quarter points.

While the OCC offense continued to click in the second quarter (28 points on 10-of-19 shooting with four 3-pointers), the Beavers' offense slowed to just 15 points (6-of-15 shooting). Coast closed out the half with a 14-3 run over the final 3:22 to carry a 48-39 lead into the locker room.

Both teams struggled to find that first-half offensive magic, but solid defense by the Pirates minimized whatever shooting struggles may have occurred as their 11-point lead carried over into the fourth.

Tech turned up the defensive pressure with a fullcourt press, which put the Pirates on their heels early on. But while the LATTC defense increased, the LATTC offense ran out of gas as the Beavers shot just 3-of-21 from the floor in the final 10 minutes, allowing Coast to pull away down the stretch.

Once Coast broke the Beavers' press, uncontested layups followed and the lead grew from there.

Up next for the Pirates will be Round 3 with the Lasers. Coast is 2-0 over IVC this year, but both were a battle to the final shot. Coast won at IVC on Jan. 4, 57-53 and again at OCC on Jan. 27, 66-57.