Knowing they had to sweep the second round of the South Coast Conference South Division slate for any chance at a post-season bid, the Cerritos College men’s basketball team has done just that, after their 80-74 win at Los Angeles Harbor College on Wednesday night. With the victory, the Falcons are 15-13 overall and 5-3 in divisional play, while the Seahawks dropped to 2-26 and 0-8. Cerritos will need to pull an upset against Los Angeles Southwest College on the road Friday night in their 7:30 p.m. regular season finale to have any chance of being selected for the Southern California Regional Playoffs. In their first meeting, the Cougars, undefeated in divisional play, escaped with a 70-66 win.

    In the victory over the Seahawks, Cerritos overcame a 10-point first half deficit (34-24) with 2:31 remaining and trialed just 36-33 at intermission, as sophomore guard Aaron King (Mayfair HS) and sophomore forward Travele Jones (Inglewood HS) brought the team back. It wasn’t until freshman guard Van Girard (Gahr HS) drained a pair of free throws with 18:19 left in the second half, did the Falcons have their first lead of the game at 40-38.

    A swarming defense enabled Cerritos to slowly push their lead to as many as nine points (51-42), after a pair of Girard steals led to consecutive baskets, one by Girard and one by King. The Falcons held onto the lead the rest of the game, but LA Harbor made a game of it after Antonio Hodge’s steal and slam dunk with 1:03 left put the game at 72-20.

    However, King, Jones and freshman guard Wayne Chapman (Bellflower HS) combined to net eight-of-eight free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.

    King led the Falcons with 18 points, while Jones (17 points, eight rebounds, three blocks) and Girard (13 points, 10 rebounds, three steals) came off the bench to add the offensive spark. The Cerritos coaching staff made some changes to the starting lineup, and the seldom-used players did an admirable job on the night. Also playing well for Cerritos were Chapman (six points, six assists) and sophomore guard Aaron Thompson (Washington Prep HS), who saw little action in the second half, but did contribute seven points, five rebounds and four assists during his time in the game.