Shasta's gym and defense spring leaks

     It was raining inside [the] Shasta College gymnasium Saturday night, too.

     Unlike the watery drops falling outside, it was the wave of Eagles 3-pointers that were cascading down through the nets.

     The College of the Siskiyous women's basketball team hit 14 treys to pull away from Shasta in the final nine minutes for an 80-66 victory.

     While such bombers such as Kristi Arness, Katie Pollak and Chelsea Kuehner were dropping long range bombs, Eagles center Karlee Myers was finding holes in the Knights' D along the baseline. The freshman from Chico had 31 points and 10 rebounds to complement her perimeter teammates.

     The combined onslaught was too much for Shasta (5-4 Golden Valley Conference, 19-9) to overcome. The Knights might already be in the postseason, but a win over Siskiyous (6-2 GVC, 23-3) would have cinched it.

     Shasta ends the regular season at Butte on Saturday in a last bid to improve its playoff qualifications.

     Against the Eagles, Shasta was coming off a road victory at Feather River on Friday, but didn't return until 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning. That didn't give the Knights much time to face a well-balanced and quick Eagles squad.

     Mikilah McKenzie had 17 points, while sophomore guard Ashley Rinne added

13 points and seven rebounds in likely her last home game for Shasta. Angela Porras had eight points and nine boards and sophomore point guard Ashley Crnich finished with seven assists.

     Siskiyous came out firing with four early 3-pointers to jump out to a 25-11 lead in the game's first 10 minutes.

     The Knights made a late surge in the final six minutes in the first half to cut the gap to 40-34 by halftime.

     Then it was Shasta's time to start out strong. The Knights opened the second half on a 13-2 run. When Crnich stole the ball and put in a layup with 16:40 left, the knights moved up 47-42.
     But the Eagles responded with a 15-4 run of it's own.

     Robyn Angley, another sophomore guard, came off the bench and knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game 57-all with 8:59 left.

     But, Arness bounced back with a 3-pointer and Kuehner followed with another trey to reestablish Siskiyous' lead. Shasta's offense then ran out of gas as the Eagles pulled away in the final six minutes.

Pollak finished with 13 points, while Arness had 12, both canning four 3-pointers apiece. Kuehner added 11 points, eight boards and five assists for the Eagles.