College of the Canyons women’s basketball won its third straight contest 51-46 at Riverside City College on Tuesday, Nov. 18 behind double-digit point totals from freshmen Lili Martinez and Kathy Artiga.

The win pushed Canyons (3-3) back to .500 on the season while Riverside City (3-5) had its streak of back-to-back wins halted by the Cougars.

Martinez’ 20-point output was her second in as many outings after finishing with 23 points in the win against San Bernardino Valley on Saturday. On Tuesday, she added a season-high 17 rebounds and was 11-of-12 from the foul line.

Artiga knocked down a pair of shots from beyond the arc in the first quarter to give the Cougars an early boost from long range. Her 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting in the quarter helped COC to a tight 21-18 lead in the early going.

Canyons faltered a bit in a low-scoring second quarter that saw the Cougars muster just seven points while committing nine turnovers. As a result, RCC built a 34-28 lead heading into the halftime break.

COC trailed by six points heading into the fourth quarter but was able to close things out by outscoring the Tigers 15-4 across the final 10 minutes of action.

Riverside shot a paltry 2-of-18 from the field in the final quarter. Meanwhile, Martinez and Artiga combined for nine points while Nicole Assadourian added three more off the bench, to finish the game with seven.

The Cougars found an edge at the charity stripe by going 15-of-20 for the game compared to RCC which was 11-of-21 on the night.

Riverside was led by reserve Kylah Guillory’s 11 points and six rebounds. Alexa Moreno and Brianna Ruelas were tops among the Tigers’ starters with seven points each.

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