Riverside Runs Over Roadrunners, 83-47, in RCC's Earning Our Stripes Opening Round

RIVERSIDE -- Leading from start to finish, the Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers women's basketball team closed the opening round of its inaugural Earning Our Stripes Tournament with a resounding 83-47 win over the visiting College of the Desert (COD) Roadrunners Friday night (Nov. 7) at RCC's historic Arthur N. Wheelock Gymnasium.

Riverside (1-0 overall) jumped out to a 12-0 lead at the 14:12 mark and never looked back. The Tigers led, 24-4, midway through the opening stanza en route to a 50-14 advantage at halftime.

Sophomore guard Tristyn Gates (Riverside / Arlington '13) pumped in 17 first-half points on five of six shooting from the floor, including a pair of three-pointers, and five of six free throws. Gates finished with a co-game-high 19 points, as did sophomore center Tori Mitchell (Riverside / Poly '12).

Exhibiting tremendous balance, three Tigers scored in double figures, four had at least seven rebounds. and three had at least four assists.

For COD, frosh guard Cindy Saldana (Perris / Perris '14) scored a team-high 14 points.

In earlier tournament action, the Barstow College (BC) Vikings overcame a 43-35 deficit with less than nine minutes left and came from behind late in the game to pull out a 54-50 win over the Cerritos College Falcons.

In game two of the tournament, a total of 54 personal fouls were whistled as the Cypress College Chargers took their first lead at 32-31 with 5:46 left in the first half, led 47-37 at halftime and cruised to an 85-67 win over the Glendale College Vaqueros.

Sophomore center Haley Gorman (Stanton / Los Alamitos HS) tossed in a game-high 17 points to pace the Chargers. Frosh guard Natalie Gutierrez (Granada Hills HS) paced Glendale with 16 points.

Game three saw the El Camino College (ECC) Warriors break a 16-16 tie with an 11-0 run midway through the first half, led, 32-21, at halftime and went on to a 68-50 win over the Grossmont College Griffins.

Sophomore forward Sydney Chase (West Torrance HS) pumped in a game-high 20 points, including six three-pointers, for ECC. Sophomore guards Abigail Vargas (Monte Vista HS) and Kayla Rivera (Eastlake HS) each poured in 12 points for Grossmont.

On Saturday, Nov. 8, the matchups are as follows: Cerritos versus Glendale at 1 p.m. and Grossmont versus COD at 3 p.m. in a pair of consolation semifinal games. On the championship side of the bracket, Barstow faces Cypress in the 5 p.m. semifinal, before RCC hosts El Camino in the 7 p.m. semifinal.

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