Despite a resurgence in the second half, Pierce was not able to erase the point gap and fell to the Oxnard Condors at home.
The Brahmas lost to Oxnard with a final score of 59-33.
Oxnard’s defense kept Pierce’s offense confined to a pure perimeter styled game. The Brahmas swung the ball from sideline to sideline looking for an open player to take a shot. This one-and-done style of play proved difficult for the Brahmas as they lost in the rebound battle 38-21.
“To be honest with you we didn’t really have a strategy,” shooting guard Ahtziry Ramirez said. “We had good passing, but I think we could have worked better and shown a lot more if we were all mentally ready for the game.”
“I think we just need to work on communication and working together as a team,” point guard Vanessa Lara said. “We need to hustle. We need to work harder.”
Head Coach James Couch stressed for his team to keep the ball moving throughout the game. They wanted a fluid game in order to find open players.
Pierce ended the first half with a buzzer-beating three point shot from sophomore guard Nichela’e Henderson. The shot decreased the deficit to 11 with the score 26 to 15.
“This year, coach sat us down and had a good conversation telling us we need to share the ball,” sophomore center Nazia Raheem said. “We weren’t really running our offense right. We were frustrated, coach was yelling, and there was a lot on our minds. It was also our first home game.”
“He wasn’t really quite happy about how we played because he usually expects more from us,” Ramirez said. “Normally, we don’t play like this. We are normally on top of our game. Like our last game we won 14 points over. I didn’t expect us to lose this game.”
The Brahmas became stronger in its defensive schemes during the second half of the game.
“Definitely, I want to be a more aggressive defensive player,” Ramirez said. “Offensively, I just want to shoot better and drive one up to the basket and put one in.”
“I feel like we could have done way better, we could have beaten them,” Raheem said. “We could have run our plays fully. We could have took time and run the stop clock down instead of just taking shots or passing the ball.”
The Brahmas women’s basketball team will play next in the Cuesta Tournament from Dec. 3 through Dec. 5.