By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

The Lady Cougars remain in the hunt for the Western State Conference, South Division crown after an important 74-63 victory over Bakersfield College on Sophomore Night in the Cougar Cage.

Canyons (16-10, 3-1) rolled to a 17-point first-half advantage after limiting the Renegades (8-15, 1-3) to just nine points in the opening quarter. COC also found slight edges in winning the battle of the boards 42-36, and committed one fewer turnover than Bakersfield.

Sophomore Alexis Orellana led all scorers with 26 points on an 8-of-16 shooting performance. She was also 3-of-6 from long range and added four rebounds in the game. Her 16 points in the first quarter helped COC set the tone for the evening.

Cristian Patron and McKenzie Stoehr both scored in double digits for Canyons, while Kaitlin Eells added eight points off the bench.

Patron finished the game with 11 points and 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals. Stoehr had eight points to go with three rebounds.

Janeth Cruz also had a big night on the boards, ending her night with nine rebounds, including eight of the offensive variety.

Here’s the box score and a link to more game photos.

Prior to the game the team’s five sophomores (Eells, Shauna Van Grinsven, Shayla Johnson, Cruz & Orellana) were honored during a brief “Sophomore Night” ceremony (pictured above).

Canyons now sits a half-game behind West L.A. College (18-8, 3-0) in the conference standings. The two teams, which shared a co-WSC, South championship in 2018, will meet once more in the season finale Feb. 19, in Culver City.

Before that, Canyons will take the court at Santa Monica College at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16.

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.