Led by California Community College Athletic Association Northern California player of the year Doris Jones, Diablo Valley College’s women’s basketball team beat Lassen Community College 87-44 during their opening playoff game on Saturday, Feb. 24 at DVC.

Jones collected 28 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks and 5 turnovers in a stat-stuffing, do-it-all game against the Cougars.

“It’s never about scoring, it’s about keeping my teammates involved, no lapses on D, staying focused the whole game,” said Jones adding that because having only seven available players, “(the) first key for us is to defend without fouling.” 

The Vikings smothered the Cougars from the opening tip, forcing Lassen into turnovers and contested shots late into the shot clock.

The last 90 seconds of the first quarter had the Vikings close with consecutive made threes followed by an emphatic block to blow the lead up to 22-6 and never looked back.

Lassen continued to battle but simply could not match the length, size and defensive intensity of the Vikings.

Twice, the Vikings snagged offensive rebounds off of missed free throws, simply out-muscling the Cougars both times.

“We outworked Lassen, really put our foot down on getting rebounds,” said guard Kendra Jeuitt. “All season, all we work on is defense and rebounding.”

Unable to break down DVC’s defense, the Cougars started settling for quick 3 point shots.

The Cougars finished the game shooting 22 percent on 27 attempts from distance as a team.

According to Cougars forward Maddie Camacho, they are usually a good shooting team, but when the Cougars couldn’t hit their shots, they started to fall apart. She added it didn’t help that two starters who play in the post were out with injuries, which made getting rebounds more difficult.

Vikings head coach Ramaundo Vaughn thinks teams tend to overlook them on defense because of how good they are offensively.

Ultimately, DVC’s success comes from its character.

“Team motto is ‘one more’ because if we get one more rebound, we get one more chance to play in another game so we just have to do one more than the next person,” said Jeuitt.

“This is a product of seven kids who really care about each other, unselfish, want to see each other be successful, play well and hard for each other,” said Vaughn, “What they lack in individual talent they make up in playing together, loving each other and focusing on winning the CA state championship.”

The Vikings advance to the Round of 8 to play against College of the Sequoias, Saturday, March 3 in Visalia at 7 p.m.