By Kevin Sheridan, Co-Sports Editor and Nicholas Corey, Staff Writer

American River College’s women’s basketball team lost to rival Sierra College on Friday by a score of 76-49.

ARC started the game slowly, with Sierra getting off to a 10 point lead early in the first period, and ARC struggled to consistently score points, which freshman forward Haylee James player blamed on errors and tempo.

“We came out flat in the first half. We just didn’t play up to what we’re capable of,” said James about the team’s start.

Sierra maintained as much as a 30 point lead for most of the contest.

Sierra used a full court press defense for the majority of the first period, however ARC had intermittent success against it during the second half, scoring 32 points in the second period.

ARC and Sierra combined for a total of 36 fouls in the game.

Despite the high foul count, James says she didn’t feel as though the game was unfairly called.

“There were a lot of pushing fouls, but I felt (the officiating) was even for both teams,” she said.

During the first period, there was a sequence in which freshman guard Kamari Hunter had a free throw attempt rescinded, and the ball was given back to Sierra.

By the second half American River had reduced the gap by exploiting their size in the middle to freshman Cassandra Jaimes.

“Practice our press break and ball movement,” said Hunter on what to improve before the next game.

American River College had an assist to turnover ratio of 3 to 14, compared to the Wolverines 15 to 12. Sierra also bested the Beavers in rebounds 50 to 29.

American River shot 13-51, 25.5 percent from the field, while Sierra was just a hair over 40 percent.