The women’s basketball team has claimed the conference championship for the second year in a row.
Their season, consisting of 14 games against seven teams in the conference, the season ended with the Comets game against the San Diego City College Knights. The Comets defeated the Knights scoring 91 points against the Knights’ 37, earning them the championship title.
In addition to being their second championship win in a row, the Comets went undefeated this season. This is a massive achievement for the program, as it is the first time in Palomar Women’s basketball history that the team has finished the regular season undefeated.
Along with this victory came a series of other accomplishments. Head Coach, Leigh Marshall, won her 6th Coach of the Year award. The programs lead scorer, sophomore Deajanae Harvey, was awarded Player of the Year for the second year. Harvey finished the conference as the programs lead scorer with 281 points, 97 rebounds, 65 assists, 84 steals and four rebounds, throughout the conference season.
The team continues to pursue success, now moving into the playoffs. Marshall said, “This our first time being undefeated, but it’s not something that we talk about. We don’t talk about how we haven’t lost we just talk about getting better every day.”
Their commitment to improving and pushing forward paid off as they moved into the playoffs for the California Community College Athletic Association state championship.
Seated at number two in the tournament, the Comets claimed another victory against the number 15 team, Rio Hondo. This victory advanced them into the “Sweet 16”, the top 16 teams remaining in the state tournament. During this match, the Comets displayed their strength as a team overall. Five of their players scored double digits including Deajanae Harvey and Camille Sroufe who scored 18 and 15 points respectively.
The team synergy comes as no surprise to the Comet’s coach. “We are a veteran group, so we have nine girls back from last year. That has a lot to do with our success I think.” added Coach Harvey. “They’re older, they’re really serious, they know what it’s like to get to the elite 8… So I think they’ve done a really good job getting the younger girls on board and making it their team.”
Moving into their next match against number seven team, the Glendale College Vaqueros. The Comets once again managed to secure victory landing them back in the Elite 8 for a second consecutive season. Palomar Beat out Glendale 77-60, earning them an astounding 30 win undefeated streak in their final home game of the tournament. Their next match will be against the number 3 seeded team of the College of the Sequoia’s, being held on March 10th at 7pm.
