On Wednesday, January 28, 2009 the Lady Corsairs of Santa Monica College knew that the West L A College Wildcats would be a formidable opponent. Shannon Austin, Wildcats' Sophomore Guard and Forward, would be a force to be reckoned with. She seemed to be taller than 5-10 on the court. It looked like she was getting all the rebounds, points and assists. She was all over the court.

Nevertheless, one player does not make a team, and effectively, the game was over within the first five minutes of the first period.

West L A gets the opening tip-off. Faydra Caldwell scores first. On SMC's first possession, the ball is inbounded to Karlia Batalla, Batalla passes to Audriel Wyrick. Wyrick passes to Rayshandra Ray. Ray passes back to Batalla. Batalla passes to Jewell Morris who scores two. The score is tied at 2-2.

On the Wildcats' next possession Keisha Irvin makes a beautiful three-pointer. The Corsairs try to answer with their own three-pointer but miss. They get the offensive rebound and pass to Morris who is fowled in her attempt to shoot two. She makes both free-throws and the score is now 5-4, Wildcats.

West L A fails to score on their next possession. Batalla gets the ball and passes to Wyrick. Wyrick passes to Ewnique Robinson, but Austin steals the ball and goes coast to coast for the lay up. The score is now 7-4, West L A.

The determined Corsairs fight back. The ball is inbounded to Batalla. Batalla passes to Wyrick who passes passes back to Batalla who then passes to Robinson. Robinson passes back to Batalla who goes for three points but misses. Wyrick gets the rebound, shoots, misses, but gets her own rebound. She shoots again and misses. Out of nowhere comes Austin who gets the rebound and takes it back down the court and attempts a lay up but misses. She nevertheless gets her own rebound and makes the second attempt. The score is now 9-4, West L A.

On the Corsair's next possession Batalla attempts a three-pointer and misses. Ray gets the rebound and passe to Meghan Duron. Duron throws the ball away. It looks like West L A is in control of this game.

Then with 17:16 left on the clock and tensions rising, West L A is charged with technical fowl. SMC makes one of the two free throws. Moreover, it's Corsairs' ball.

The ball is inbounded to Batalla who passes to Robinson. Robinson attempts to pass the ball to Ray but it's blocked. It it looks like a steal in the making but Morris wrestles the ball away from Irvin and passes to Batalla. Batalla passes to Wyrick who passes back to Batalla and makes a long three-pointer. The score is now 11-8 with 16 minutes left in the first period.

While attempting to inbound the ball, West L A turns it over to Batalla who pases it to Wyrick who throws it all the way down court to Morris who is in the low post and essentially slams it for two. Score is now 11-10 West L A.

The ball is inbounded to West L A's Austin who passes it to Irvin. Irvin passes it back to Austin who pases it to CeeCee Jeffries. Jeffries passes to Irvin who misses the lay up. Ray gets the rebound for the Corsairs and takes it all the way back for two points. The Corsairs take their first lead of the night; 12-11

Then the Corsairs turn on the heat. West L A turned the ball over on their next three consecutive possessions. The Corsairs would score two points off of each. With 15 minutes left in the first period, the score is 16-11 in favor of Corsairs. The six unanswered points shifted the momentum which would not shift back for the rest of the game.

The Corsairs would extend their lead to as many as 12 points during the first period. At the half, the Corsairs led 43-33.

In the first quarter of the second period the Wildcats defense would step up. With 14:23 left to go in the game, the Corsair's lead had dwindled to a mere five points with a score of 54-49.

Then sadly, the worst injured Wildcats player of the night had to be helped off the court. Lina Robinson's injured her right arm and left the game. The injuries were not serious enough for medical attention.

Half way through the second period the Ladies of Santa Monica Basketball were on fire. They extended their lead to 12; the score was 69-57. The Wildcats fought back hard and narrowed the lead to a low of ten points, but in the end, the Corsairs were having the night of the season, hitherto.

West L A's Jeral Desir makes the last shot of the game with six seconds left; a thrilling three point shot from almost mid-court to give her team 70 points. Inspiring; but too little too late: final score Corsairs 91, West L A 70.

Jewell Morris had 19 points for the night and said that the "first half was exciting because it was so close. But we were able to stretch it out. The key to the game was about rebounding and hustling. I think we played hard. I am glad we won and I hope we can win Conference."

Chantel Diaz said "We sort of lost our hustle in the first period but didn't let it affect our game. We played hard and in the second period we did really good on offense and boxing out the good shooters," she said.

Apparently there had been a little trash-talking before the game. Diaz said "We were frustrated about some of the things we heard that they said about us. I think we did a good job of showing them that we really are a good team and may be better than they thought we were."

Dion Diaz, Chantel's mother, said she thought that the referees should have called more fowls than they did. "Unfortunately the referees were not in the game. I think there were a lot of fowls that should have been called that weren't called; the score would have been a lot lower than it was," she said.

Ms. Diaz was impressed with Batalla's performance. "I think the one that really stepped up was Karlia. I thought Karlia did a really really good job assisting and she came out and hit her three point and played the position she needed to play tonight," she said.

She ended by saying "But it was a good game overall."