As the basketball season winds down, the San Diego City College women’s basketball team is looking to climb the conference ladder as they currently sit in fourth place with an overall record of 9-11 and a 5-3 conference record in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference.
“We should be doing a lot better but with what we have and what we are working with, we are actually doing really good,” said sophomore forward Nyaduop Lam.
Lam has led the team to success and has recorded an impressive 11 double-doubles so far in the season. Lam is averaging 16.7 points and 13.1 rebounds a game and leads the conference in rebounds with an overall total of 249.
“You know Nya is kind of one of those silent killers on the court,” said Head Coach Andrea Aguilar. “Every team knows that she is the one to stop but the thing is that no one has been able to figure out how to do that and even on her worst games she still acquires double-doubles.”
Aguilar went on further to say that Lam is one athlete that the team was lucky to come across and with the help of her teammates, she has been able to help keep the team afloat during the season.
Lam is putting together an impressive season for the Knights but expressed she has been impressed with the freshman on the team.
“I have been impressed with the freshmen on the team, I don’t have a particular one but all of them are taking that step and when one of us is having a bad game they have been coming up like ‘Hey, I’m going to step up and do something to help’ which is great to see,” Lam said.
The Knights defended their home court last week by defeating MiraCosta College 46-43 on Jan. 28, and on Jan. 30 the team ran away with a 46-36 victory against Mesa College.
Aside from Lam having great success in the paint for the Knights, sophomore point guard Darrian Castillo has also helped the team by feeding her teammates the ball and scoring. Castillo averages 12 points and five assists a game and currently is ranked third overall in the conference with a total of 94 assists.
Coming off the bench for the women’s basketball team, sophomore forward Shamonique Malone-Boyd has been a huge reinforcement for the team. Malone-Boyd helped the Knights finish in third place in the second annual Knights Colbert Classic in December and now is causing problems for teams as she is averaging 11 points and 11 rebounds a game.
As the Knights are now starting to build momentum, the team is focused on finishing the season strong and looking to put together a series of wins to compete against the top three teams: Palomar College, Mt. San Jacinto College and Grossmont College.
Aguilar went on to express that although the team has suffered some injuries and are ready to bounce back, the team won’t be looking too far into the future but rather take each game at a time.
“There is always an opportunity for that first place spot but right now we are taking it one game at a time and hoping we can come over that hump and our goal right now is to get some wins and we’ll see how it pans out in the end,” added Aguilar.
The next home game for the women’s basketball team is against Mt. San Jacinto College on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.
