2020 Review: 26 Game Winning Streak, Conference Title Highlight W. Basketball Season

The MSJC women's basketball team set a school record with a 26 game winning streak that lasted nearly four months, before seeing their season end in the CCCAA State Sweet 16.

The Eagles got off to a bit of a slow start on the year as they went just 1-2 to start the season.  After a loss to Palomar on November 8th, MSJC would rally to win their final 25 regular-season games and capture their third straight conference title.  2020 was the inaugural season for the Inland Empire Athletic Conference and the Eagles went a perfect 12-0 in league games.  MSJC also went undefeated in league play in 2019 when they were members of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference.

After finishing the regular season with a record of 26-2, the Eagles were awarded the #7 seed in the CCCAA Southern California Regional Tournament.  MSJC hosted Pasadena City College in the 2nd round of the playoffs and picked up a 58-47 win to give them their school-record 26th straight victory, and advanced them to the Regional Final and State's Sweet 16. Unfortunately, a rough offensive night saw the Eagles drop a road contest at Mt. San Antonio in the Regional Final to end the season.   That game was on March 7th and was  MSJC's first loss in 120 days.  The Eagles were playing in their 14th straight postseason and the team has reached at least the Regional Final for five straight seasons.  The program has posted a record of 216-35 over the last eight seasons and in that time has a conference mark of 83-9.

Haylei Janssens, a sophomore from Riverside King High School, had a monster season for the Eagles as she earned both IEAC Player of the Year and First Team All-State honors.  Janssens had 22 double-doubles on the season and finished the season averaging 19.1 points per game and 12.6 rebounds which were both team highs. She reached double figures in scoring in all but two of MSJC's games this past season and had a career-high 31 against Barstow on January 2nd.  Freshman point guard Deja Blue (Canyon Springs HS) also had an outstanding season as she was named First Team All-Conference and Third Team All-State.  Blue finished the year averaging 11.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4 assists per game.  Sophomore De'Adra Ross from Summit HS also earned First Team All-Conference honors as she pulled down 11.2 rebounds per game, scored 7.3 points a game, and blocked a team-high 78 shots.  Freshmen Mariah Sanchez and Haley Suarez both from Hemet HS earned Second Team All-IEAC honors.  Sanchez averaged 10 points per game and made a team-best 65 three-pointers on the year and Suarez averaged 7.6 and was second on the squad with 41 made threes.

Janssens and Ross have both signed scholarships to continue their playing careers at Humboldt State next Fall.  Keiara Barton (So. Vista Murrieta HS) a guard who started 29 of the Eagles 30 games this past year has signed a scholarship to Life Pacific University and point guard Alyza Lopez (So. Citrus Valley HS) has signed to continue her education and basketball career at Bethesda University.

The women's basketball program is looking forward to the 2020-21 season and will begin their summer school class on June 15th if you are interested in the program you can email head coach Chris Mozga at cmozga@msjc.edu for more information.