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02.27.08 - Travele Jones
hit a jumper with 12:21 left to
go in the first half to give
Cerritos their first lead. Cerritos defeated Santa Monica
College, 65-61 and advances to the
2nd Round at LA Trade-Tech on
Saturday. |
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Photo Gallery |
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Still riding the momentum of
their second round sweep in South Coast
Conference South Division play, the Cerritos
College men’s basketball team overcame a
12-point first-half deficit to post a 65-61
win over Santa Monica College at The Aviary
on Wednesday night. The first round win by
the 14th ranked Falcons (17-13)
sends them to the second round, where they
will travel to Los Angeles Trade-Tech
College on Saturday for a 7:00 p.m. contest.
The Beavers are seeded #3 in the regionals
and received a first round bye.
The
Falcons faced LATT earlier in the season and
suffered an 82-79 overtime loss in a game
Cerritos led by 10 points in the second
half. The winner of that game will move one
step closer to advancing to the state
championships.
In
the win over the Corsairs (17-15), Cerritos
didn’t take their first lead until a
Travele Jones (Inglewood HS)
short jumper with 12:21 left in the second
half for a 36-34 lead. Santa Monica used a
fast start to open up a 9-0 lead to start
the game after Carl Kindborg completed a
three-point play. Cerritos would be down by
as many as 12 points (21-9) with 9:36
remaining, but slowly close the gap by the
end of the first half and trailed 29-23 at
intermission.
As
the second half progressed, the Falcons were
able to escape the trapping defense by Santa
Monica and incorporated their fast-break
offense on missed shots. Cerritos upped
their lead to eight points (48-40) after
sophomore guard
Aaron Thompson (Washington Prep
HS) nailed a three-pointer from the
baseline with 7:26 remaining.
However, Santa Monica wasn’t done yet,
and rode the outside shooting of Noah
Gottlieb, who hit two late three-pointers to
close the game to five points (61-56) with
55.6 seconds remaining. Gottlieb led the
Corsairs with 22 points and six rebounds,
while Kindborg added 10 points before
fouling out.
For
the Falcons, they received 22 points and 13
rebounds from Thompson, with Jones and
sophomore guard
Aaron King (Mayfair HS) each
finishing with 10 points and combined for 13
rebounds. The Falcons out-rebounded Santa
Monica, 44-29 in the game.
