Skyline women's hoops drops 2nd straight

Wednesday night, the Trojans suffered just their second home loss of the season 68-54 to City College of San Francisco. Skyline is now even in the loss column atop the Coast North Standings, with Chabot and City College — each at 5-2 in conference play with one more regular-season game yet to play than Skyline — in a logjam for first place.

“We just did not play well in the fourth,” Skyline head coach Chris Watters said. “We turned it over a couple times and they adjusted their lineup to five guards.”

It was tough for the Trojans to keep up, considering they fielded just six players against Chabot. A six-player rotation has been par for the course this season, but Skyline recently lost sophomore forward Ani Uikilifi (Capuchino) to a knee injury, thrusting untested freshman Valeria Martinez (Oceana) into action.

With a bye this Wednesday, Skyline stands a chance of getting Uikilifi back for Friday’s regular-season finale at Ohlone College-Fremont. The sophomore is scheduled to have her knee reevaluated Wednesday.

“I feel like even though we lost a couple, maybe gained one more player in the rotation if Uikilifi can come back,” Watters said.

Skyline trailed the whole way against Chabot but kept it interesting through the opening three quarters. The Trojans cut the deficit to 1 late in the third before Chabot closed the period hitting two free throws. The Gladiators went on to outscore Skyline 20-11 in the fourth.

Freshman forward Nicole Brunicardi recorded her usual double-double, leading the team with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Jalene Parangan added 14 points, and Olga Faasolo scored 11 for Skyline.

Martinez emerged to score six points, a new career-high. The freshman had seen limited minutes, but has been relied upon as Skyline sixth-man for the past three games since Uikilifi last played Jan. 29 in a 54-44 win over Ohlone.

“[Martinez] has been playing with confidence ... and was able to give us some good minutes tonight,” Watters said.