The Cerro Coso women's basketball team returned from the Christmas and New Year's break to host Chaffey in an Inland Empire Athletic Conference match. The Coyotes entered the match having won their conference opener against Palo Verde but lost on the road to Victor Valley before going on break. In a very close match between the Coyotes and Panthers, the home team used a late rally in the fourth to secure a 63-50 win.

"Very pleased with our group. We played a tough Chaffey team. They run a lot of really good sets; they play a lot of good basketball," said Coyotes coach Keshawn Johnson. "They are coming off a big win over Fullerton, so for us to be coming back from break, coming off a loss to Victor Valley, to go out there and battle was huge. It was a really good win for us, and we will continue to work and hopefully build on that success going forward."

Cerro Coso had three players score in double digits, with starter Shaniyah McCarthy's double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds and a double-double off the bench by Alexis Staton with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Starter Savannah Rowland had 16 points. As a team the Coyotes shot 42.9 percent from the field on 63 attempts, 30.8 percent from the three-point line on 13 attempts, and 62.5 percent from the free-throw line on eight attempts.

The first half saw both teams keep the game close with neither team able to build a lead over four points. The Coyotes' first lead came in the second quarter on a three-point play by Staton and went into the half leading 31-29. But in the third quarter, as the Coyotes' offense and defense was on a roll and built a nine-point lead, they hit a cold spell. After building a 40-31 lead, the Coyotes' offense began to miss layups and open shots, took a few contested shots, and watched the visitors chip away at the lead and get back into the game. McCarthy ended the drought with a layup with 12 seconds left in the quarter and gave her team a 42-37 lead going into the fourth.

The Coyotes and Panthers exchanged baskets for half of the fourth quarter until Johnson called a timeout with seven minutes left with a 48-45 lead. Following the timeout, the Coyotes' offense went on an 11-0 run to secure the win. Staton scored on a jumper, made a steal for an uncontested layup, and scored another layup to start the run. Rowland had a layup and Iliana Nye banked a corner three for a 59-45 lead to secure their second conference win of the season.

Johnson said on his team overcoming their cold run in the third and then going on a run in the fourth quarter, "it was only a matter of time for them. The cold stretch that they had, you could see the shot opportunities that we had were gimmes and they would roll in and out, bad layup hit back iron, or whatever the case may be. In my mind I knew it was a matter of time. All we did for this whole game leading up to this event was talk about the defensive end. The mentality was win the game on defense — we don't care if we score 30 points, 20 points, or 40 points. The mentality was get stops and win the game on the defensive end and on the glass."

The Coyotes' coach continued on his team's mentality against the Panthers, which was to be better defensively. He said, "we want defense to be our identity, and it's taking time, but we have a very talented group of offensive players. Everyone we put on the floor can score the ball. If they were in a different program, half of the kids on our team could average 20-plus points a game to be honest. Turning these offensive minded kids into defensive minded kids is a challenge, but when they buy into it, they get to see the results. And it leads to them being able to play. I try not to handcuff them on the offensive end when they play defense. They know if they get stops, they get the opportunity to play and attack the basket."

And the Coyotes played strong defense against the Panthers in controlling their height and speed. The Coyotes finished with 36 total rebounds with 12 on the offensive glass. They had only 10 steals but were active in getting their hands in passing lanes to deflect many passes, which also kept the Panthers from getting many chances at two-on-one situations. The Coyotes had four blocks but also contested many of the Chaffey shooters, forcing them to alter the arc on their shot or take a contested shot late in the shot clock.

The Coyotes continue Inland Empire Athletic Conference action with a road trip to Copper Mountain on Wednesday. They return home on Saturday for a non-conference game against LA Harbor with tipoff at 2 p.m., and then host Desert on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at 5 p.m. Johnson spoke on what he wants to see from his team as they look for their first conference road win.

"Headed down to Copper Mountain next game on Wednesday," he said. "We still have a lot of growth to do, clean up our offensive side of the ball, fix some things defensively, talk about contesting shooters and boarding the ball some more at practice. It's just growth — we haven't peaked yet. We still have a lot of growth to do."