When sophomore forward Andrina Rendon (St. Paul HS), the team's leading scorer and rebounder, went down with a season-ending injury just one day before the Cerritos College women's basketball team was about to host College of the Canyons in the 2nd Round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs, the coaching staff and team knew that each of them would have to put in an extra effort. Stepping up to put the team on her back was Rendon's sister, freshman guard Marissa Rendon (St. Paul HS), who scored a career-high 29 points, as the #5-seeded Falcons posted a convincing 79-60 win over the #12-seeded Cougars at Gahr High School on Saturday night. The win by Cerritos (23-7) advances them to the 3rd Round, where they will travel to face #4-seeded East Los Angeles College (23-6), who defeated Irvine Valley College. The Falcons and Huskies split their two games in South Coast Conference play during the regular season.

For Marissa Rendon, she watched sophomore guard Armelia Patterson (Long Beach Millikan HS) open the game by draining a three-pointer, before scoring 10 of the team's next 16 points, as the Falcons opened up an early 18-9 lead with 11:15 left in the first half. By intermission, Cerritos pulled away for a 38-24 lead, with Rendon accounting for 17 points. It was a 20-19 Falcon lead after an Angelica Sahagun basket with 9:04 remaining, but swelled their lead to 14 points by outscoring Canyons (19-11), 18-5 the rest of the way.

Cerritos never saw their lead slip under double-figures the remainder of the game, despite the Cougars maintaining their hectic up-tempo pace that led to fast break points, as well as 25 turnovers on the night. The Falcons also turned to their outside shooting, netting 10-of-25 three-pointers, with Patterson (17 points) leading the team by draining 5-of-9.

Freshman guard Talor Hixon (St. Anthony HS) led the team with eight rebounds to go with her eight points and five assists, while freshman forward Deenesha Bee (Pioneer HS) pulled down six boards off the bench. Sahagun led the Cougars with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Bev Weaver (16 points), Jazzmyn Davis (11 points), Amanda Ajdari (11 points, six assists) and Delisa Chapman (10 rebounds) providing balance for the Cougars.