The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.

The College of San Mateo women’s basketball team pulled off perhaps the biggest women’s basketball upset of the 21st century Wednesday evening, opening Coast North Conference play with a 63-56 victory at formerly No. 1 ranked City College of San Francisco.

CCSF (15-4) was ranked No. 1 in the state the first week of December and is currently No. 5 (No. 2 in NorCal). CSM (11-7) is No. 15 in the north. But that will most likely change when the new poll is released.

“Our offense has been humming along just fine,” said CSM coach Michelle Warner. “So we’ve been focusing on defense this week.”

In particular, CSM was able to contain Janice Petersen, one of the state’s best scorers.

“I think the height and pressure frustrated her,” Warner said. “She hit her average but didn’t hit a single 3 on us.”

CCSF only lead once, and that came in the game’s first basket. From there, CSM flew out to a 19-4 lead and led by 10 come halftime.

The Rams closed the gap late, making it 56-54 with two minutes to go. But the Bulldogs shut down the Rams the rest of the way, surrendering only free throws.

Kimmie Fung scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds. She had four assists and three steals. Vanessa Castillo scored 18 to go with four assists. Nicole McDonald had six steals.

San Mateo’s home conference opener is Friday night against Las Positas at 5:30 p.m.