Women's Basketball Clinches Third Straight Conference Title

The MSJC women's basketball team won going away on Wednesday night at College of the Desert 109-46 to claim their third straight conference championship.

The Eagles out scored the Roadrunners in each quarter on Wednesday as they built a lead of 52-28 by halftime behind strong starts from Deja Blue and Haylei Janssens.  The two combined for 29 first half points to help secure the victory.  The Eagles controlled the glass as they out rebounded Desert 60-29 in the game and forced the Roadrunners into 36 turnovers.  MSJC also did a nice job of sharing the ball in the game as they dished out 33 assists and the Eagle bench was big on the evening with 39 points coming from non starters.

Janssens finished the night with her 20th double double of the year as she scored a game high 28 points and hauled in a game high 16 rebounds.  Blue ended the contest with 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.  Mariah Sanchez came off the bench to score 15 for the Eagles and Diamonere Butler added 11 points and 6 rebounds in 13 minutes of action off the bench as well.  Alyza Lopez, who made her first start of the season on Wednesday, was solid with 4 points, 5 rebounds, and a game high 8 assists in the victory.

The Eagles improved to 24-2 overall on the season and 11-0 in the Inland Empire Athletic Conference to clinch the inaugural Inland Empire Athletic Conference championship.  MSJC has now won three conference titles in a row and have won 6 league championships over the past 8 seasons.

MSJC has two regular season games remaining before the start of the CCCAA State play-offs.  Wednesday the Eagles will travel to Copper Mountain for a "non" conference game at 5 pm, before wrapping up their schedule at home on Friday February 21st against San Bernardino Valley.  The game on the 21st will be a doubleheader with the men's team with the women tipping at 5 and the men at 7.  The 21st will also mark "Sophomore Night" for both programs.