Cuesta women’s basketball falls to Ventura in conference opener

The Cuesta College women’s basketball team fell 77-44 to Ventura in a Western State Conference opening game Wednesday night.

Cuesta (5-12, 0-1 conference) fell behind 21-4 after the first quarter.

“It seems like we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot,” Cuesta coach Ron Barba said.

Barba said the team rallied to within a dozen points on multiple occasions, but couldn’t get enough shots to fall to sustain a comeback at any point.

“Nobody likes to lose by 30, but we’ll try to keep putting some of the pieces of the puzzle together,” he said. “Those shots are gonna fall one of these games.”

Cuesta shot 12-52 from the field and 17-26 from the free-throw line. Ventura had the upper hand in rebounds 48-37.

Ventura (15-4, 1-0) was paced by Carolyn Ruffino, who hit five 3-pointers for a team-high 15 points.

Cuesta hosts L.A. Pierce on Saturday at 5 p.m.

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Cuesta women’s basketball falls to Ventura in conference opener."