It was a disappointing Friday night for DVC’s women’s basketball, which lost a conference game Friday to Santa Rosa, 77-58 at DVC. The loss followed a Jan. 6 non-conference defeat to the same team, 47-57. Santa Rosa led in points the entire game, with DVC consistently lessening the gap, but never overtaking its rival. By the second half, Santa Rosa led by 19 points, with the score at 43-24. But DVC tightened up the gap to 57-49 after a sudden shift in play and the help of several free throws. Head coach Maureen Mattson said the team’s strategy for the second half was to “get more physical,” a strategy that yielded good results. But DVC was unable to keep up the pace, and Santa Rosa continued to score until the game ended. DVC guard Megan Souza attributed the widening the gap at the end of the game to the team’s exhaustion from trying to make a comeback. DVC guard Vernessa Roberts agreed, “We got down too far. [It] was too hard to come back Mattson agreed with the players, but also commended them for playing hard. “We played really well in spurts,” Mattson said. “We keep playing up and down and not playing consistently.” The team’s next game in Feb. 10 against Modesto Junior College at home.