The Skyline Women’s basketball team won their third game of the season 81-60 against College of the Siskiyous on Friday, November 15. Sophomore center Olga Faasolo scored 22 points, and starting shooting guard Michala O’Donoghue contributed 16 points while shooting four-of-five on three point attempts.

Throughout the first half of the game, Skyline had great ball movement along with good tempo of the game. Faasolo, made the first five shots for Skyline jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the beginning of the game. At the end of the first quarter Skyline lead Skyine led by 14 points thanks to Faasolo

In the second quarter, the team focused and played a 2-3 zone while on defense, this restricted the Siskiyous shooters to make shots; while on offense, Faasolo continued to dominate inside the paint, scoring eight in the quarter, plus the team’s extra passing in every section in offensively, created a large amount of wide-open shots from inside and outside the arc.

However, in the third quarter, Siskiyous started to exert pressure on the defensive side making Skyline’s shot selection difficult. Early on in the third quarter, Siskiyous fired off 11-2 including three 3-pointers forced head coach Chris Watters to call a timeout. After the time out, starting point guard Emilia Dougherty along with O’Donoghue made three 3-pointers within 11 points, pulled the score back to a 57-38 lead, leading by 19 points at the end of the third quarter.

Jump into the last quarter, all the Skyline players still remained concentrated on defense where Siskiyous had fast ball movement outside, with many three-point attempts being put up. Skyline cut the ball with a leading pass, creating transition fast breaks with layups. Gradually, the game settled down, both teams played their reserves and the game ended with a 72-23 final.

Regarding of the wining in this game, the Skyline head coach Chris Watters point out that controlling the tempo is one of the winning strategies for this game

“What we didn’t want to do was try to run up and down with them and play their tempo. So we forced them to play our tempo,” said Watters. “And I think by doing that, we made them a little bit uncomfortable or we took them out of their comfort zone, and it got hard for them to get hot.”

In addition, point guard Emilia Dougherty said in regards to the first half, she wasn’t scoring and applying herself in the game. However, she believes that trust between her and the rest of her teammates was the most important element to help her to build confidence in the second half.

As for Faasolo who scored the highest with 22 points in the game, felt the winning element is based on the great communication on defensive side.

“We did really well and talking, communicating with each other on defense, especially when we knew that the other team was going to shoot the heck out of the ball,” said Faasolo. “Luckily they didn’t make all the shots that they were shooting, which definitely played a big intimate advantage to us as a defensive team.”

Regarding his player, Watters gives Faasolo affirmation about the growth

“She showed a lot of great leadership tonight. She showed a lot of great composure,” Watters said “She’s shown some real growth from her freshman season to her sophomore season.“