Cecily Saavedra, guard, was thrilled in the midpoint of the second half, smirking a little and quickly running back as she hit a tough jumper from beyond the arc, cutting the deficit from 15 to 12. Then, in a matter of minutes, that enthusiasm quickly vanished when she looked up at the scoreboard.

The Women’s basketball team was trailing by 19.

Despite fighting for every loose ball and rebound, the Warriors (1-2, 0-1) could never overcome an early double-digit deficit after the first half, losing at home 80-58 to Mt. San Antonio College in the South Coast Conference opener Wednesday night.

“Mt. SAC is No. 1 team in the state,” Steve Shaw, coach, said. “They have had a lot of success. They’re very aggressive and solid as a defensive team where they make things hard for you. So I was pleased with some of the stuff we were able to do offensively. At times defensively we were good but it’s just that consistency you have to have against really good teams.”

After winning the season opener against Allan Hancock College, the team has dropped two in a row and will try to get back on track at against another conference foe, L.A. Trade Tech College, tonight at 5 p.m away.

“I think we proved to ourselves that we can hang with the top-ranked teams in the state,” Kirsten Hurd, forward, said. “Friday’s game against L.A. Trade Tech is going to be big for us. If we can pull together for a strong win, it will put us on the path we need.”

Shaw said that the team has had its moments early on, but needs to show it for an entire game.

“This is another team (L.A. Trade Tech College) that had great success last year,” Shaw said. “But with this group I think we have the capability of beating anybody. We showed it tonight with spurts of how good of a team we can be. Every night we step on the floor, I think we are confident that we can go on winning the game.”

Briana Hunt, guard, along with Hurd, was the only other player to score in double figures for the Warriors, finishing the game with 12 points, 4 assists and 4 steals, while Kristen Dresser, forward, was cold from the field missing 10 out of 11 shots and finished with 5 points and 2 rebounds.

With the season still young, the Warriors are still working on the chemistry, with eight freshmen on the team.

“We have to improve on talking to each other,” Dresser said. “We just have to be more together as a team because we’re still new.”

Hurd thinks that no team will be able to stop them as the sky is the limit for them.

“When we play together, we are unstoppable because each one of us has something unique that we bring to the table. We just have to make sure to come out every game and execute,” Hurd said.