Vaqueras roll past Gauchos
By RODNEY HAAS Staff Writer Pinal Central Casa Grande Dispatch

SIGNAL PEAK — With finals and the long Christmas break ahead, the Central Arizona College women's basketball team had some business to take care of first with Glendale on Saturday.

It did just that.

The Vaqueras opened the second half by going on a 14-2 run to take a commanding 45-29 lead and never looked back en route to a 72-56 win.

"I felt like we were playing on our heels a little bit and letting them stick around," CAC coach Denise Cardenas said. "They were scrappy and they got under our skin. But we were tough enough to play it out — especially on a day before the holiday break."

Kiara Knox led the Vaqueras with 21 points, with 12 of them coming in the second half, while Morticia McCall added 14 points.

Ella Segal scored 16 points to lead Glendale.

Central (8-2, 5-0 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) led 19-14 at the end of the first quarter, but Glendale went on a 6-2 run to cut the lead to 26-20 in the second quarter before the Vaqueras pulled out to a 33-24 halftime lead.

Central led 50-39 going into the fourth quarter.

"Overall I think our girls handled the scrappiness and the shots that they were taking at us," Cardenas said. "We have to learn from this. We are not taking any leg kicks but I will definitely take our conference record going into the break."

Central is tied for first in the conference with Pima and Mesa, which are both undefeated in conference play. The Vaqueras will travel to a tournament in Las Vegas over the Christmas break before returning to conference play on Jan. 3 at Mesa.