The MSJC women's basketball team opened up conference play on Wednesday night in Joshua Tree and came away with an 83-30 win over Copper Mountain College.

The Eagles got off to a fast start as they built a lead of 16-4 after the first quarter.  In the second MSJC out scored the Fighting Cacti 26-7 to build their lead to 42-11 at the half.  Sandee Heiermann scored 17 of her game high 18 points in the first 20 minutes for the Eagles.  MSJC would go on to the victory out scoring CMC 41-19 in the second half.  The Eagles dominated the boards in the game as they hauled in 35 offensive rebounds and 75 total in the game.

Deja Blue and Maliyah Bosley each had 13 points in the victory, with Blue adding 13 rebounds and 5 assists on the night.  Shyann Morreo also reached double figures in scoring with 10.  Diamonere Butler just missed a double double as she scored 9 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.  Heiermann added a game high 14 rebounds to go along with her 18 points.  Alaysia Kidwell had 4 steals along with 7 rebounds and 6 points.

The win marked the 500th in the college coaching career of Chris Mozga, who now has 398 wins as a women's head coach as well as 102 as a men's coach.  Mozga was the head coach of the women's basketball team at College of the Desert for one season (1998-99) where his team earned 20 victories.  In six seasons as the men's head coach at Desert (1999-2005) the Roadrunners won 102 games.  Since his arrival at MSJC as the leader of the women's program the Eagles have earned 378 wins and are currently in Mozga's 16th season at the school.

The 2021-22 Eagles are now 9-4 on the season and 1-0 in IEAC play, they return to action Saturday when they host Barstow at 1 pm.  Saturday's game is part of a doubleheader with the men's team with their game to follow at 3.