{"id":182553,"date":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182553\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","slug":"womens-basketball-comeback-falls-just-short-in-loss-to-san-jose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/182553\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Basketball Comeback Falls Just Short in Loss to San Jos\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s Basketball<\/a><\/p>\n

As the regular season comes to a close, the Rams must raise their level of play.<\/p>\n

\"Women\u2019s
\n City College cheers on their teammates from the bench. Feb. 6, 2026, San Francisco, Calif. (Teresa Madrigal\/The Guardsman).<\/p>\n

The Rams fell to San Jos\u00e9 City College 69-60 on Feb. 6th. San Jos\u00e9 defended in a 2-3 zone for the entire game, which made scoring more difficult for City. <\/p>\n

When the Rams had success, they moved the ball with crisp passes to find easy layups. Forward Stephanie Salazar and center June Lumumba cashed in as a result, scoring nine and 11 points, respectively. Sophomore guard Alexis Cornejo also knocked down a couple shots from behind the arc, scoring 10 in the loss.<\/p>\n

After the first quarter, the score was all tied up at 14-14. Cornejo pump-faked and sank a floater, and the Rams\u2019 good ball movement led to a jumper. Unfortunately, being in the bonus cost the Rams some free throws. Thus, they were down 32-36 at the half. <\/p>\n

The San Jos\u00e9 lead ballooned to 51-30 at one point, but with 2:45 to go, the Rams had trimmed the San Jos\u00e9 lead to just three \u2013 59-56. However, San Jos\u00e9 pulled away in the final minutes for the non-conference win. <\/p>\n

\"\"Jessie Chau (22) being guarded by the opposing team. Feb. 6, 2026, San Francisco, Calif. (Teresa Madrigal\/ The Guardsman)<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think we can improve on getting back,\u201d Cornejo said. \u201cWhen it comes to the games, I think we just get flustered, and we have to work on our communication.\u201d <\/p>\n

Freshman guard Caelan De Vera echoed that focus. \u201cI think we can work on making the extra pass,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Despite the loss, players pointed to progress. \u201cOur ball movement definitely got a lot better\u2026 it\u2019s just a matter of closing and finishing and being consistent throughout the whole game,\u201d Cornejo said. <\/p>\n

De Vera added that the team\u2019s energy fueled its comeback. \u201cI think we kept our energy coming back from a 22-point deficit \u2013 the bench was hyped, the players were loud. I think that really helped our momentum on the court.\u201d <\/p>\n

Freshman guard Jessie Chau highlighted the team\u2019s interior play. \u201cI think we did [a good job] of getting the ball to the middle and touching the key and then kicking it back out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To sum it up, Cornejo said: \u201cWe definitely need to improve at just getting the little details right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Coach Derek Lau talks to Alexis Cornejo (30) on the sidelines. Feb. 6, 2026, San Francisco, Calif. (Teresa Madrigal\/The Guardsman).<\/p>\n

Head Coach Derek Lau was direct in his assessment. “Obviously, we lost. We didn\u2019t put together a consistent game. We have a lot of young players, but that\u2019s no excuse. They have to know that they\u2019ve got to bring energy every game, and they walked in and weren\u2019t ready right off the bat.\u201d <\/p>\n

He cited execution as the central issue. \u201cWe have to knock down shots\u2026 we were kind of turning the ball over \u2013 some of our passes were at people\u2019s feet and things like that, but we have to be accountable for those things. That\u2019s on us to play better and push that ball in transition. We [have] to get better at executing [against] a 2-3 zone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be ready to go and be consistent for four quarters and have the same energy for four quarters,\u201d Lau said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way we\u2019re going to turn the tables on this. We\u2019re still in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rams are currently 18-5 and 4-1 in conference play. Their final home game of the regular season is against Foothill on Friday, Feb. 20, at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Basketball As the regular season comes to a close, the Rams must raise their level of play.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":{"0":"post-182553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-san-jose","9":"tag-san-jose-headlines","10":"tag-san-jose-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}