(Mesa, AZ) Opening Day of the Cal-Pac Conference Tournament at Bell Bank Park.
The host school, Park University-Gilbert doesn’t have a Men’s or Women’s team in this year tournament. Only the top six teams out of eleven teams qualify for post season play.
Game 1 Women: #5 UC – Merced vs #4 Westcliff matchup with Westcliff holding a 24-20 lead at the half.
Trinity Vasquez was the Cal-Pac Player of the Year in 2022 led all scorers with 12 first half points.
Westcliff held the Bobcats to just 7-30 shooting from the floor and 3-10 from beyond the arc.
In the third quarter, both teams went cold from field, but Westcliff still led 33-27.
In the final stanza, the Westcliff Warriors opened up a thirteen point lead midway through the quarter 44-31.
At the three minute mark, the UC – Merced Bobcats went on a 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 44-39.
With 20.5 seconds left, a critical offensive foul was called giving UC – Merced the ball. The lead was whittled to one 44-43 on a layup.
After the timeout with 14.3 seconds left on the clock, Merced put Westcliff at the charity stripe. Hitting both free throws, Westcliff went up by three.
The game wasn’t over as Westcliff inexplicably fouled the Merced shooter beyond the arc giving her three free throws. Making two of three and pulling to within one point 46-45.
Merced fouled immediately with .7 on the ticker and Westcliff hit one of two still giving the Bobcats a glimmer of hope.
After a timeout, they put up a twelve foot runner, but the clock had expired and Westcliff had survived 47-45 to advance.
