Cabrillo women come up short against state-ranked San Jose City | College basketball roundup

SAN JOSE — The Cabrillo College women’s basketball team, coming off a challenging 3-24 campaign last season, faced off against the No. 10 state-ranked San Jose City Jaguars, fighting for sole possession of first place in the Coast Conference South Division on Friday.

In a tough battle, the Seahawks fell 65-58 to the defending champion Jaguars. Despite the loss, the Seahawks remain determined to improve from last season’s struggles and aim to secure a place in the postseason for the first time since 2019.

Cabrillo holds an overall record of 14-7 and is 3-1 in conference play. With seven games remaining in the regular season, the Seahawks are set to host Hartnell on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“I thought the girls played hard,” said Tony Marcopulos, who is in his first year as the women’s coach after leading the men’s program for 20 years. “It’s always disappointing when you’re competing for a conference championship and lose a conference game — they all matter. But, like I told the girls in the locker room, ‘It only counts as one.’ We’ll get a shot at them again in February and hopefully we can hold serve here and get a little bit better as we go.”

Freshman guard Sydney Chesnut and forward Gabby Brooks each contributed 17 points to lead the Seahawks. Brooks scored 13 points in the first half, while Chesnut finished strong with five 3-pointers.

On the other side, Hayley Johnson, a 6-foot-2 center from Fremont High, paced the Jaguars with 20 points, supported by guard Synise Byrd who added 19 points with five 3-pointers.

“I think they kinda willed them through it,” noted Lauren Adamek, the head coach for the Jaguars. “Our press was huge; it was really helpful. And then we started taking care of the ball on offense, executing our plays, and got some good looks out of it.”

The first quarter was closely contested, with the teams exchanging the lead six times and ending the quarter tied at 16-all.

Cabrillo seized an eight-point lead, 30-22, midway through the second quarter, fueled by Chesnut’s pair of 3-pointers and contributions from sophomore forward Renee Parker and Brooks. However, the Jaguars closed the first half strong with a 10-2 run, including a steal and transition layup from Tatiana Collazo, leading to a 32-32 tie at halftime.

“Man, we were extremely competitive,” Chesnut remarked. “We were really excited for that game, and I think that was probably one of the best games of basketball we’ve played in a while, so I’m really proud of us. We hung in there.”

The Seahawks took their last lead early in the third quarter with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Jade Crum, but the Jaguars responded with a 16-0 run, largely driven by Johnson’s dominance in the paint and Byrd’s shooting from long range.

“They rebound the ball really well,” Marcopulos acknowledged. “They wore us out. Their inside game really hurt us. We were concerned before the game about their rebounding; they’re one of the better offensive rebounding teams in Northern California. They’re 19 and 2 for a reason. We managed to take away a lot of their strengths, but we just kinda ran out of gas and made too many mistakes, a lot of unforced errors in critical times. So we’ve got to clean that up moving forward.”

Cabrillo fought to close the gap but couldn’t complete the comeback. “I think we did a lot of things well,” Chesnut said. “Our defense was solid, and we transitioned well down the court. We’re not used to teams pushing the ball like that, so it was a good test of how we’ve been practicing.”

The Jaguars took an early advantage with free throws, attempting 12 before Cabrillo got their first at 5:04 remaining in the game. San Jose finished with a solid 11-of-20 from the line, while the Seahawks managed 5-of-6.

Collazo contributed two 3-pointers, totaling 15 points for the Jaguars, while Parker led in rebounds with ten points for the Seahawks. Crum added nine points to the mix.

In a prior matchup, San Jose City defeated Cabrillo 66-56. The Seahawks initially took a lead but struggled to maintain it against the No. 13 state-ranked Jaguars. With an overall record of 11-10 and 3-2 in conference, Cabrillo finds itself in third place, trailing behind the defending state champion West Valley and the Jaguars.

Despite the challenges, the Seahawks demonstrated strong defensive capabilities, limiting the Jaguars to 13 points under their season average. However, they struggled offensively, connecting on only three of their 14 attempts from beyond the arc. Freshman forward Dai’shaun Buie led the Seahawks with 18 points, including ten from the free-throw line, while freshman guard Walzel Evans added 11 points, and sophomore guard Max Parmigiani chipped in with nine.

The Jaguars entered halftime leading 35-28, and sophomore guard AB Gilchrist ignited the second half with 12 of his game-high 20 points in the first six minutes, extending the lead to 15, 51-36, demonstrating their offensive proficiency.

Sophomore forward Davis Crilly made significant contributions with three 3-pointers, totaling 15 points for the Jaguars, while freshman forward Savion Daniels added 14 points. Santa Cruz’s Tariq Weiser, a sophomore guard from Bellarmine College Prep, added seven points for San Jose.