FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fred Baer
(650) 483-3733
baerf@smccd.edu

CSM Basketball Finally Plays at Home Friday

San Mateo — The College of San Mateo women’s basketball team will finally play its first home game of the season Friday (Dec. 14) at the annual Tom Martinez Invitational, which features a statewide field. The Bulldogs (1-4) meet Folsom Lake (2-4) in the opening day nightcap at 7 p.m. at the College Heights Gym.

Tourney favorite College of the Sequoias (10-2) tips off the event at 1 p.m. against Santa Monica (5-7). Shasta (5-5) and Merritt (2-8) play at 3 p.m., followed by Butte (5-5) vs. Reedley (5-6) at 5 p.m.  The 3-day invitational continues with four championship and consolation semifinals on Saturday (at the same times) and finals on Sunday (starting at 11 a.m., with the title game at 3 p.m.).

Sequoias is ranked third in the state and second in Northern California in the current coaches poll. Reedley is No. 14 in NorCal.

CSM has played only five games in the first two months of the season, by far the fewest in the state, due to circumstances — which included air quality issues.

State No. 6 ranked Merced College did not agree to a later postponement of its scheduled Nov. 20 date at CSM (when the campus was closed due to the bad air) and scheduled a JV team to replace San Mateo. That left the Bulldogs with a huge gap in an already light early schedule. San Mateo went 18 days without a game.

After opening the season with an 82-67 victory at Modesto JC, the Bulldogs continued to travel more than a thousand miles in November to play a total of four games at the Santa Barbara and Shasta College (Redding) tournaments (separated by that 18-day gap).

Three of CSM’s four losses have come from teams ranked among the top dozen in Northern California.

–Sophomore Megan Jajeh leads CSM in early scoring with a 10.0 average and has connected on 9-of-22 three-pointers (40.9 percentage). Center Victoria Mataele, a 6-0 freshman out of Carlmont High, is averaging 9.6 points. Sophomore forward Nandi Eskridge is averaging 9.4.

The Bulldogs have started with a balanced 10-player approach, averaging 72.0 points through those first five games. They have outrebounded opponents, 107-104, led by Eskridge (5.8 average).