San Diego City College women’s basketball player Elissa St. Julien was unaware she was among the top scorers for the Knights in their final game of the Knights Invitational against Palo Verde.
The five-foot-nine guard from Chula Vista, who averages 11.9 points per game, discovered she scored 16 points as soon as she sat down to chat with City Times Media for a post-game interview on Nov. 22.
St. Julien looked at the stats sheet, her mouth dropped open, before the mic caught her saying, “Oh my!” as she smiled and laughed.
The three-day tournament might have been more challenging than they expected, but City continued to push through, winning the final game of the Invitational.
“It was tiring, but I think we learned a lot of lessons playing games back-to-back,” St. Julien said. “I’m kinda happy for that.”
The team will be able to put those lessons to use this week during the Knights Crossover, where City will play two games over the next three days.
City will be matched against Barstow (0-9) on Dec. 3 at 5 p.m., located at Harry West Gym, followed by their game against San Bernardino Valley (1-7) on Dec. 5 at 11 a.m.
Here’s how City did in the recent Knights Invitational.
Knights 69, Palo Verde 42
On the final day of the Knights Invitational, the women’s basketball team faced Palo Verde, securing their first win of the tournament.
Elissa St. Julien scored the first layup of the game, putting City on the scoreboard, allowing for an early lead.
Although the lead did not last long, with Laciela Kline taking her chances from the top of the three-point line, putting it away and creating a lead for Palo Verde that carried through the rest of the first quarter.
From the start of the second quarter, Palo Verde held their two-point lead until Maddox Weisskopf stole the ball and passed it to Leslie Mwenyemali, making a layup to tie the game 14-14.
This created the beginning of City’s dominance of the game. Weisskopf made a lay up now opening the start for City, never losing their lead for the rest of the game.
The Knights finished the first half of the game with a 20-25 advantage over Palo Verde.
City continued to play both defense and offense throughout the game, Palo Verde struggling to be more than two points behind.
With two minutes left of the game, Noufissa Takmouati scored the last free throws, making it 42-67 for Palo Verde.
City continued to play through the rest of the time, securing a winning chance on the last day of the Knights’ invitational for City.
Reedley 83, Knights 66
In its second loss in the Knights’ Invitational, this time to Reedley Tigers of the Central Valley Conference, City was overwhelmed by lead scorer Taylor Sutherland, who poured in 39 points, 15 of those points secured from five three-pointers
On the City side, Aamori Daniels topped her season high, contributing 22 points. She also had 11 rebounds and four blocked shots, but turnovers remain an issue for the 5-foot-11 sophomore from Georgia.
City started the game strong defensively, holding the Tigers (5-1) to 12 points in the first quarter. The Tigers responded with a 30-point second quarter, a season high, hitting seven shots from three-point range.
The Reedley lead would balloon to as many as 18 in the third quarter, with City shooting a paltry 3-of-15 from beyond the arc.
Knights captain Dahlia Blake showed grit, pulling City back within single digits in the fourth, 72-63, forcing a Tiger timeout.
But the deficit would prove to be too much to overcome, as Sutherland would respond by stealing the ball twice and adding seven points in the final minutes.
Three players, Daniels, Blake and Weisskopf for City, would score in double digits, but 24 turnovers to Reedley’s 11 would be a major factor in the loss.
Desert 68, Knights 56
The Knights’ first loss of the weekend came against Desert in the Knights Invitational opener on Nov. 20 at Harry West Gym.
Desert’s Giovanna Espinosa finished with a game-high 22 points, making it difficult for the Knights to shut the five-foot-three guard down.
Sophomore Dahlia Blake was not far behind on the scoreboard. The five-foot-nine forward scored a total of 17 points with 11 rebounds and two assists.
The Knights played heavy defense and offense throughout the first half of the game, keeping it close in points.
That ended in the third quarter, when the Roadrunners created a lead that was difficult for the Knights to overcome.
This story was edited by Samira Hassan and Nadia Lavin.
