SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Santa Ana women's basketball team won two out of three games to take home the second place trophy in its annual tournament on Saturday night.
Santa Ana used a well-rounded attack to defeat College of the Desert 72-58 in round one on Thursday night. Nyla Bivens (16), Lexi Ross (15) and Danielle Pryor (11) all scored in double digits while the Don bench recorded 19 points to help build their largest lead of the game to 28 in the third quarter.
On Friday, the Dons completed a comeback to knock off the Cosumnes River Hawks 66-53 in the semi-finals. The Hawks jumped out to an early 17-8 lead after shooting 41.2 percent (7-17) and going 2-2 from three in the first quarter. Santa Ana quickly answered and found their stride with a 21-7 run in the second to go into the half with a 29-24 lead. The Dons kept that same energy in the next two quarters to run away with the game and advance to the championship against Moorpark College.
In game three, Santa Ana matched up with the Moorpark Raiders and looked to hand them their first loss of the season. That would not happen, as the Raiders used a 27-3 run in the second quarter to pull away from the Dons, eventually winning 88-39.
Nyla Bivens, a freshman from Westminster High, averaged 15.6 points and 5.3 rebounds in the over the three games for the Dons to earn All-Tournament honors while sophomore guard Cailey Vitug led Santa Ana in assists with 13 (4.3 apg) and also added 10 points to claim a SAC All-Tournament selection for the second consecutive season.
UP NEXT
Santa Ana (3-5) will finish up their non-conference schedule with the Allan Hancock Tournament from Dec. 6-8 and the Grossmont Tournament that will take place from Dec. 28-30.