Women's Basketball wins the Colleen Riley Tournament at Fullerton College. Photo courtesy of Dave Aguilera.
Posted: Dec 30, 2016
By John M. Sherrard
(Fullerton, Ca.) Four Mt. SAC Basketball players scored in double figures to lead the Mounties to their fourth tournament championship this season, with the latest a 69-38 victory over Long Beach City College in the 38th Annual Colleen Riley Holiday Invitational at Fullerton College Thursday night.
For the fourth season in a row the Mountie women have won four or more tournaments in a season and defeated LBCC for the third straight year in the Fullerton tournament championship game.
"We finished off 2016 with a victory over a good team in Long Beach," said Mt. SAC coach Brian Crichlow, who recently won his 200th game for the program earlier this month. "This was a total team effort and we got production from multiple players, which gives a positive outlook for the second half of our season."
Overall the Mounties have appeared in 11 consecutive Fullerton College Invitational championship finals, winning 12, and have appeared in 13 of the last 17 championship games.
The Invitational, named for Coach Riley, who passed away in 2012, was the head coach of the Fullerton College Hornets women's basketball program from 1969 through 1994.
The Mounties (16-1), ranked second in the state CCCWBCA poll, won their 11th game in a row and are the second hottest team in the state with their streak.
Mt. SAC guard Dominique McLaughlin was named the MVP along with three Mountie players chosen for the All-Tournament team.
McLaughlin scored 14 points in the championship game along with six rebounds and was 4 of 6 at the charity stripe.
The freshman averaged 17 points in the three games, with a game-high 24 in the opening game for the Mounties and had eight 3-pointers. She also had 19 rebounds in the three games.
Also named to the All-Tournament team were sophomores Allyah George and Caira Benton and freshman Kali Jones.
In the championship game, George had 11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block. Benton, who was the MVP of last years' tournament, had ten points, a game-high 15 rebounds and four steals. Jones scored a game-high 17 points and had nine rebounds, three blocks, five assists and was 3-4 at the free throw line.
Mt. SAC freshman forward Jade Hughes added six points for the Mounties.
The Mounties brought down 56 boards (19 off., 37 def.) and scored 25 points off of 23 LBCC turnovers.
Jones led the Mounties with ten points in the first half as Mt. SAC held a 30-17 lead.
Mt. SAC doubled its lead to 50-25 after a 20-8 run to end the third quarter, highlighted by McLaughlin's six points and five from Jones.
Before the South Coast Conference schedule begins the Mounties will play their final three non-conference games starting with a rematch at Long Beach on Friday January 6. Game time is 6:00 pm.
In an unusual matchup this will be the fourth time this season that the Mounties have faced the Vikings, with all previous games in non-conference tournaments.
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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630