Giants women's basketball topples Porterville to maintain CVC lead, improve to 22-0 on season
January 26, 2025

Giants women's basketball topples Porterville to maintain CVC lead, improve to 22-0 on season

By Nick Giannandrea

COS ATHLETICS

College of the Sequoias women's basketball team is halfway to attaining its first major goal of the season – winning the Central Valley Conference championship.

The state top-ranked Giants received at least 24 points apiece from sophomore standouts Campbell Vieg, Jocelyn Medina and Morgan Trigueiro while rolling past Porterville 119-38 on Jan. 25 at Porter Field House to improve to a CVC-leading 6-0.

Sequoias holds a one-game advantage over No. 22 Fresno City (14-8, 5-1) – which it thumped 67-44 on Jan. 18 in Fresno – in pursuit of the program's seventh CVC title since 2015, and first under new coach Tyler Newton.

The Giants are the state's only undefeated team at 22-0 overall.

"It doesn't matter what we've done thus far, we've got to take it one game at a time, move forward and try to get our first goal accomplished," Newton said. "We know that usually the second half of league, it's a dog fight. So we've just got to keep chipping away and trying to get better at practice, improve on the areas we need to improve and keep moving forward."

Under the direction of former Sequoias assistant Isaac Castro, Porterville (6-14, 0-5) proved little more than a speed bump for a Giants team that has steamrolled their way to wins over 11 state-ranked opponents, including the teams ranked Nos. 2-4 (Orange Coast, Mt. San Antonio and Moorpark, respectively) twice each.

Porterville trailed 7-6 at the 6 minute, 53 second mark of the first quarter following a 3-pointer by Anjolie Cibrian (El Diamante High), before Sequoias closed on a 19-5 blitz to take a 26-11 lead.

The Giants then held Porterville scoreless for the first 7:13 of a second quarter where they would outscore the Pirates 25-2.

Porterville never got closer than 44 points behind in the second half.

"I was proud today, Newton said. "It's about us trying to play to our standard and accomplish the things we want to accomplish, and set a goal every game defensively where we want to try to hold teams under. We were focused and locked in on every possession. I thought the girls did a great job with that today."

Vieg (Chico) led the Giants with 26 points along with 10 assists, five rebounds, four steals and a block.

Medina (Arbuckle) delivered 25 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and six steals.

Trigueiro (Caruthers) added 24 points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal.

That trio all earned all-state honors last season playing for Newton at state semifinalist Butte before following their coach to Visalia.

Sequoias also received 10 points, eight rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block from Kaitlin Giacone (Eureka); and seven points, five rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block from Lucia Ricci (Seattle).

The Giants also got contributions from all five players who came off the bench, paced by Olivia Gill (Woodland) with nine points, three rebounds, an assist and a block.

Anisa Torres (Caruthers) had seven points, nine rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block; Teresa Sandoval (Hanford West) had six points and two rebounds; Maya McNeal (Marysville) had three points and two rebounds, and Karine Dhaliwal (Yuba) added two points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal.

"I try to get as many girls experience as I can because it's gonna take all of us to continue to move forward and chase our goals," Newton said. "I felt like the girls were all ready today when their number was called."

Sequoias will be idle until resuming CVC play at 3 p.m. Feb. 1 at home against Taft (13-8, 2-3). The Giants beat the host Cougars 119-67 on Jan. 8.

Fresno City visits Porter Field House at 5 p.m. Feb. 12.

Sequoias' only other home game before the postseason begins is scheduled for 3 p.m. Feb. 15 against Merced (8-12, 1-3). 

The Giants are gunning for top seed for the Northern California Regional playoffs, which would guarantee home court advantage up until the state's Elite Eight tournament, scheduled for March 14-16 in Walnut.

Sequoias seeks the program's 14th trip to the Elite Eight and seventh since 2015. The Giants last reached the Elite Eight in 2023. Their only state championship came in 1987.

"I feel like we're engaged and we're locked in where I want us to be," Newton said. "It's just the whole notion of trying to show up every day like that, which is hard with any team, really. We're just trying to be consistent every day."

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