With the discovery that there
was an outside chance at garnering the last
of the 20 post-season positions available
with a win over El Camino College on Friday
night, the Cerritos College men's basketball
team came out and played flat for the first
35 minutes of the game and suffered an 80-67
loss. A win by the Falcons (11-18 overall)
would have secured them sole possession of
second place in the South Coast Conference
South Division, which would have make them
an outside chance at a post-season bid. But,
with the loss to the Warriors (15-12), both
teams, along with Los Angeles Southwest
College, finish the division with 4-4
records. The teams will be selected for the
playoffs on Monday afternoon.
As it
turned out, the game was a complete opposite
of their first meeting, an 89-57 Falcon
victory. Cerritos led 36-29 at intermission
in the first game and went on to blow out
the Warriors, while the halftime score was
the same in their second meeting, except in
favor of El Camino. In the second half, the
Warriors outscored Cerritos 25-10 in the
first 8:34 of the second half and held a
61-39 advantage. It wasn't until the final
five minutes the Cerritos made any kind of
dent in their deficit.
Poor shot
selection and the inability to get back on
defense allowed El Camino to transition from
defense to offense in a seamless manner, as
they had numerous fast breaks after missed
Cerritos shots. Kevin Wilson, who had just
one point in the first game, exploded for 17
second half points and led all scorers with
24 points for El Camino.
Although
he led the team with 22 points and had eight
rebounds, freshman forward
Travele Jones (Inglewood HS)
made just 6-of-15 shots, while the team
collectively did not shoot the ball well all
night. However, after freshman guard
Demetrius Turner (King-Drew HS)
drained a three-pointer with 1:06 left in
the game, Cerritos was down by a 79-67
score. After a Falcon steal, they looked to
set up for a three-pointer to get the
deficit under 10 points for the first time
since early in the second half. However, a
turnover led to an El Camino steal and they
were able to keep the Falcons off the board
the remainder of the game.
Turner added 19 points, with 15 of them coming in the second
half, while freshman guard
Jerell Elder (Long Beach Millikan
HS) finished with nine points, nine
rebounds and three assists. Elder, who was
inserted into the point guard position, was
there because of the absence of freshman
point guard
Xavier Carpenter (Carson HS),
who was unavailable because he was attending
a family funeral. Without true direction
from the offense, the Falcons committed 22
turnovers on the night.
