The Park University Gilbert women's basketball team need a win and some help to make the California Pacific Conference Basketball Tournament on the final day of the regular season. The Buccaneers took care of their end of the deal with a 77-59 win over the University of Saint Katherine. But unfortunately for the Bucs, Westcliff lost to Benedictine Mesa and with the win the Redhawks took the final slot in the conference tournament. Park Gilbert finishes the season 13-13 with an 11-9 mark in conference play.

In their game versus the Firebirds, the Bucs dominated from the first quarter. The Firebirds jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Bucs went on a 12-0 run. Then with the score 16-11, the Buccaneers finished the period on a 7-0 run to up 12.

The second stanza was a little closer as Park Gilbert won the period by five and extended its lead to 17 going into halftime. Kayla Schroeder led the team with 18 first half points. She only missed two shots in the first half, a three-pointer and a free throw.

The second half was played evenly between the two teams, with Park extending the lead to as many as 23 points and USK was never able to cut the deficit to fewer than 15. Park Gilbert outscored the Firebirds by one overall in the second half to bring the score to its final 18-point margin.

Macy Markus finishes her career with one of her best scoring days in her two-year career with 31 points. The second highest total in her career only behind the 37 she scored a last year at Embry Riddle.

Madison Chappell posted her fifth double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds as she showed no ill effects of the shoulder injury which held her out of the game with Westcliff a week ago.

Park Gilbert shot 56 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three-point range while holding USK to 39 and 19 percent.

Park Gilbert will look back on this season and wonder what could have been. After starting the year with two straight wins and almost upsetting Division I Utah Valley, the Bucs were decimated by injuries and it carried over for the entire month of December where the Bucs went 0-10, including 0-6 to start the conference season.

After such a poor run, this team did not throw in the towel, winning 11 of its final 14 games. But two of the losses, one to Benedictine to lose the tiebreaker and one to Westcliff when they controlled their tournament destiny ended the season.

But this was not a season without highlights. Point guard Jayla Reliford ends the season leading the conference and is third in the entire country in assists. Reliford also had four double-doubles, three with points and assists and one with points and rebounds.

Speaking of double-doubles, Jazmyne Jenkins (6) and Madison Chappell (5) had a number of them this season as they battled in the post against teams with players much taller and larger than either of them. Both players almost averaged a double-double for the season as Jenkins averaged 9.2 points and 9.2 rebounds, while Chappell averaged 11.4 points and 8.9 rebounds. Chappell was also amazing on the defensive end averaging almost three steals a game (2.8).

Jenkins was the only player on the team to start and play in every game while Chappell started and played in all but one.

Markus led the team in scoring for the second consecutive season, averaging 16.8 points per game overall and in conference while Kayla Schroeder averaged 15.4 points overall and 16.4 in conference.