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Photo by
Juan Velez. Celebratory mood -
Cerritos Men's Basketball defeated Long
Beach City College 78-48 Friday night. |
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They've been
facing each other for 40 years and have squared off
97 times, but Friday night's Cerritos College men's
basketball game against Long Beach City College saw
something none of the other games ever experienced.
The Falcons (6-13, 2-1), who have struggled most of
the season, put together their best game of the
season and the results showed, as the team recorded
a 30-point win (78-48). The largest margin of
victory prior to Friday's South Coast Conference
South Division game at Cerritos was a 99-70 win by
the Vikings (9-12, 2-1) in 1990. The 30-point win
was the first time either team has beaten their
opponent by as many points, as the two teams have
now each won 48 games in the series.
Cerritos will now
play their next three games on the road, opening
with a South Division game at Compton College at
7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.
From the outset of
the game, it appeared Long Beach City might be the
team to win by 30 points, as they jumped out to an
8-0 lead. Cerritos was able to tie the game at 19 on
a basket by sophomore guard
Jeremiah
Barnes (Los Altos HS), while
the team took the lead with 7:17 left in the first
half on a tip-in by sophomore guard
Van Girard
(Gahr HS).
Once the Falcons
got the lead, they seemed to go into another gear,
as they clamped down on defense and ran the floor on
offense better than they had all year. By
intermission, Cerritos led by 14 (38-24), scoring
the final eight points of the half, with baskets
coming from four different players.
Long Beach City
appeared to be playing in slow motion next to the
Falcons, who moved up and down the court and passed
the ball with precision. On the night, the team had
21 assists to go with their 29 baskets, with Barnes
leading the team with eight, as well as 14 points
and eight rebounds.
Freshman forward
Marcellus Jackson (Independence HS)
was the recipient of numerous crisp passes under the
basket, and he finished most of them. Averaging 17.5
rebounds in the last two games, Jackson matched that
number (17), while he also scored 17 points on
7-of-12 shooting. Also playing very well for the
Falcons was freshman guard
Jeremy Pope
(Mayfair HS), who scored 16 points and had
four assists. Off the bench, Girard contributed 16
points, 10 rebounds and three assists, while Barnes
turned in his best all-around game of the season.
As a team,
Cerritos shot 51.8%, while LBCC struggled by making
only 19-of-74 shots for a 25.7% shooting average. It
was also on the boards that the Falcons dominated,
winning the battle, 50-39. Randolph White led the
Vikings with 16 points and eight rebounds, with
Stephan Gwin accounting for 13 points and eight
rebounds.
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