Laney women on a roll, tied for Bay Valley Conference lead

Thirteen straight victories and counting.

The Laney College women's basketball team is on a 13-game winning streak heading into a Feb. 3 game at Los Medanos College and is currently the co-leader (with Solano College) in the Bay Valley Conference.

As of Feb. 3, the Eagles (10-1, 18-5) are ranked sixth in the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association North Region Poll and are tied for 19th in the State Poll.

Since losing their BVC opener to Solano 66-56 on Dec. 18, the Eagles have reeled off 13 straight victories, including three in winning the Delta Classic in Stockton on Dec. 13.

Laney got some revenge on that early Solano loss, defeating the Falcons 58-56 in Fairfield on Jan. 27.

Laney's Shonetta "Net" Crain-Williams scored on a put back at the buzzer to break a 56-56 tie and give Laney the much-needed victory.

The Eagles got the possession on a jump ball call with 10 seconds left in the game and Danielle Larkin put up a shot that missed. Crain-Williams grabbed the rebound in mid-air and the ball rolled in as the buzzer sounded.

"It was a wild finish," Laney women's basketball coach Ron Williams said. ‘That possession arrow was actually a foul (on Solano)."

"With it tied at 56-56, we needed a stop," Falcons coach Matt Borchert told the Fairfield Daily Republic. "They (Laney) drive to the basket on the right side, and it bounces off the backboard and rolls off the front of the rim and their best player (Crain-Williams) leaps into the air and does a sort of alley-oop putback. It was the kind of thing where if we had been on TV, they would have gone to the replay."

The Falcons (17-5, 9-1 BVC) hurt themselves early with turnovers (28 in the game, 17 in the first half), and that was the difference.

"We kind of shot ourselves in the foot there," Borchert said. "We just couldn't overcome the amount of turnovers we made."

The victory snapped Solano's 15-game winning streak and boosted Laney's streak to 12 in a row.

Crain-Williams had six points in the first half as Laney took a 30-26 lead. She finished with a team-high 11 points. Divinity Bradley, Chante Giles and Larkin each finished with eight points in a balanced scoring effort.

Laney 57, Marin 47: After that scintillating win over Solano, the Eagles came out on Jan. 29 to play host to College of Marin.

Laney was looking to come out strong and fast against the Mariners (3-8, 7-12) and with Crain-Williams scoring the first eight points for the Eagles, they did exactly that.

Even though Marin went scoreless in the first four minutes of the game, the Mariners never gave up, scratching and clawing their way up to tie the game at 31-31 with 14:45 left in the second half after trailing 27-20 at the break.

Laney then went on to build a 10-point lead after Crain-Williams broke the tie, but Marin edged to within 52-47 when Ashley Meyers hit a 3-pointer with 37 seconds left in the game.

Moments later, the referees changed what looked to be a certain Laney turnover into a timeout and the Eagles retained possession with 32 second left.

The Mariners had to foul and looked to get a break when Leticia Booker missed two free throws. Bradley, though, grabbed the offensive rebound and scored on an uncontested layup for 54-47.

Crain-Williams finished with a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds and Bradley had 11 points, all in the second half.

Laney's next home game is on Friday, Feb. 5 against Contra Costa College.