Comet Women Regain No. 1 State Ranking

San Bernardino—Coach Leigh Marshall's Palomar College Women's Basketball team, which vaulted back into the state's No. 1 ranking on Feb. 5 following an 87-82 win over then top-ranked Mt. San Jacinto College on Feb. 2, made it six-straight on Feb. 7, outlasting host San Bernardino Valley, 69-56.

Palomar (24-1), was led by sophomores Quinesha Vanhook and Andrea Lauren, who scored 12 and 10 points respectively in the win at San Bernardino. Front-liners Sophia Neubauer and Nia De La Pina-Thompson also made major contributions, each grabbing nine rebounds and scoring seven points. 

In the key win over Mt. San Jacinto, Vinessa Perryman, Monica Todd and Vanhook tallied 19, 18 and 17 points, respectively, while Laurent came off the bench to net 4-of-5 three-point attempts and finish with 12 points. Todd led the team in rebounds with nine, while Perryman and Vanhook each dished off five assists.

For the season, the Comets are averaging 85.5 points per game, while allowing just 52.8, a dominate average margin of victory of 32.7 points per game. Individually, Todd leads the team in scoring with a 15.3 points-per-game average, followed by Perryman (11.7) and De La Pena-Thompson (9.6). Todd is also the Comets' top rebounder with 7.3 boards per game, followed by De La Pena-Thompson with 6.7.  

In the latest state rankings, four teams among the top 10 are from the southern region, with Pacific Coast Athletic Conference-rival Mt. San Jacinto (24-2) third, Irvine Valley (22-3) seventh and Ventura (21-6) in the tenth spot. Sierra College of Rocklin (24-1) is second, City College of San Francisco (21-3) is fourth and College of Sequoias (23-3) is fifth. Palomar captured no less than 14 of 15 No. 1 votes in the most recent polling.