Cuesta Women's Basketball came out slowly in their first quarter against visiting Santa Barbara City.  The Vaqueros had beaten them by 25 points in their first meeting, which came at the end of Cuesta's 23-day Covid layoff. Since that defeat Cuesta has won four of its past six contests and the team was eager to get another shot at the Vaqueros.  The contest looked like more of the same as the Vaqueros took the early lead in the first quarter, 14-5, but Cuesta rallied in the second quarter and the two teams entered halftime tied, 24-24.  The stalemate continued in the third quarter, but the Cougars, behind Returning Freshman Guard Julia Carney (SLO HS), blew the game open in the final ten minutes.  Cuesta outscored the Vaqueros, 22-6, in the fourth quarter to take the game, 62-47.  Carney, who set her career-high with 23 points last week against Oxnard, netted a game-high 32 points to lead the Cougars past the Vaqueros.  Carney's offensive brilliance was complemented by Forward Hailie Abel's (San Miguel) focus on all the little things that gave the Cougars the victory.  Abel score only seven points, but posted game-highs with 11 rebounds, three blocked shots and three steals.  Abel missed Cuesta's first meeting with the Vaqueros and made all the difference in the second.  The Cougars are now 11-9 overall and 4-3 against the Western State Conference.

Cuesta is slated to play three WSC contests next week.  They play at Allan Hancock, in a make-up game from mid-January, on Monday (7 PM) and then host the Bulldogs in SLO on Wednesday (7 PM) for their second-round meeting.  Cuesta also travels to Woodland Hills on Saturday (5 PM) for a WSC game against Pierce.  The Cougars beat the Brahmas, 58-27 in their first meeting in SLO on January 19.