Mariners Women's Basketball played an excellent three quarters against the Merritt College Thunderbirds on Friday. The final 10 minutes proved to be the decider as Marin could not complete a rally to grab the road win. Marin trailed 33-22 at halftime, but nearly pulled even before falling 58-47. Kaleah Williams led the Mariners with 14 points in the game.

Marin was not intimidated by the physicality of the Thunderbirds. The Mariners scraped for every rebound and flew across the court for each loose ball. They did have some shooting woes early on, but hustle plays helped make the game 16-11 Merritt after the first quarter.

The Thunderbirds size was tough to matchup with as the home team had a number of second chance buckets in the paint to maintain their lead. Marin trailed 33-22 midway through the game, but always seemed to be one run away from taking the game.

After halftime the Mariners were the better team, they limited turnovers and took advantage of Merritt's mistakes. They outscored their hosts 15-11 in the third quarter and trailed just 44-38 heading to the fourth.

To start the fourth, Tania Hernandez cleaned up a missed shot by teammate Victoria Bing and converted to cut the lead to 44-40. Unfortunately, they would get no closer as Merritt pushed back with a 10-2 run to seal the game.

It was a valiant effort for Marin's six-woman squad, they have grown as a group during the season and become a stronger more functional unit as the year progressed.

Both Williams and Bing recorded double doubles for Marin. Williams had 14 points and 11 rebounds to go with six assists while Bing had 10 points and 15 boards in the game. Vanessa Torres added ten points of her own with three triples on the day.

The loss pushed Marin to 4-8 in the Bay Valley Conference with a single game remaining on their 2019-2020 schedule. They host the Laney College Eagles on February 21st at 7:30pm.