PC women win CVC opener

The Porterville College women’s basketball team had a size advantage over West Hills, so the Pirates decided to use that edge in height in the second half.

The end result for the Pirates was a 61-50 on Saturday at PC in their Central Valley Conference opener. “It’s nice to be technically on top of the league,” said PC coach Dave Kavern about his team winning its CVC opener.

Porterville trailed 30-26 at halftime, but against a smaller West Hills team, decided to go to work inside after halftime and outscored West Hills 35-20 in the second half. PC posted up Katrina Goulbourne and Maribel Bravo and Goulbourne finished with 19 points and nine rebounds and Bravo had a double-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. “We decided to pound the ball inside,” Kavern said.

Eva Gutierrez also had 12 points and three assists. Another key to the game came with about 10 minutes left when the bigger Jeidi Gutierrez began posting up inside against West Hill’s best player. Gutierrez scored a basket and then drew the fourth foul from West Hill’s best player, forcing her out of the game.

Kavern also praised the play of Alia Alvarez, Chrissy Medina and Jackie Padron.