A remarkable season for the Rio Hondo women’s basketball team has come to an end after losing to Pasadena City College on Feb. 24 in the first round of the Southern California Regional playoffs 65-54.

The Lady Roadrunners, who had an overall record of 14-13 qualified for the tournament with a 7-3 conference record that tied them in second place for the Foothill Conference. This was also their first playoff appearance under head coach Steve Johnson, who is in his seventh year at Rio Hondo.

Rio Hondo entered the tournament as the 19th seed while Pasadena City entered as the 14th seed and hosted the game at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.

The start of the game was played carefully by both teams who were getting a feel for each other. Stale offense from both teams made it a 13-8 game at the end of the first quarter in favor of PCC.

As the second quarter began, Rio began to score consistently and were up 17-15, but that would be the last lead they would have in the game. PCC took the lead once again with baskets of their own with a 6-2 run that made it a 21-19 game with five minutes remaining.

The Lady Lancers from PCC were the aggressors the whole night on offense and defense, forcing Rio into miscues and making them pay for it on the offensive end, using what would be a game defining 13-5 run to give them a lead of 34-24 going into halftime.

At the start of the second half, PCC came out red hot scoring at will with a lead of 18 at one point. Eventually Rio’s offense woke up, cutting the lead down with a couple of three-pointers, making the score 52-40 at the end of the third.

The Lady Roadrunners found themselves in a hole in the final quarter and responded, taking a lead that was once an eighteen point difference, down to eight to make it a 58-50 score with six minutes remaining in the third quarter.

In the last six minutes, PCC shut down any opportunity that Rio had as they only allowed four points in for the remainder of the game and would eventually win it 65-54.

PCC’s defense would stymie Rio’s offense, holding them to 32.8 percent shooting throughout the whole game, keeping them to only nine assists and forcing them to turnover the ball 13 times.

The three-point shot was not there either, as they would go on to shoot seven of 30 from beyond the arc. One of Rio’s best shooters, sophomore Justine Manjarrez, taking 12 of those and only making three finishing with 13 points for the game.

Rio Hondo sophomore Bianca Garcia would be one of the bigger contributors for the team coming off the bench with a double-double of 13 points, which tied Manjarrez to lead the team in scoring and a team high of 13 rebounds.

Other notable players were Alexis Hernandez with 11 points and six rebounds off the bench and Ashley Rendon with eight points on three of 13 shooting but grabbed 11 rebounds. It would also be the first game for Danna Robles, who went scoreless for the first time in the season, only grabbing six rebounds in the game.

While this may be the end of the season for Rio Hondo, it will also be the end of their time in the Foothill Conference, as they will switch to the South Coast Conference for the 2016-2017 season.