The Cerritos College men’s basketball team extended its winning streak to five games following a 73-66 win over Los Angeles Southwest College on Wednesday night.
Freshman guard Kevin Conrad had 20 points and seven rebounds while point guard Anthony Holliday added 20 points, five rebounds, three steals, and three assists.
The win helped the Falcons remain undefeated in the South Coast Conference and seal the victory on what some players on the team described as a sloppy game.
“It was an ugly game, but I guess at the end we just stayed together,” Holliday said.
He also added, “Just like coach said when they (the Cougars) feel they can be successful, they can get hot and that’s what they did, but we withstood that and got the win.”
The Cougars took advantage of the Falcons’ 10 second-half turnovers as it cut a 14-point lead down to just two with 2:48 left in the game.
Holliday noted that turnovers were an issue at the end.
“We missed a lot of opportunities and not to mention they made like five layups in a row so the game could have been over a lot sooner.”
LA Southwest College rallied, but a bucket by Conrad distanced the lead to 66-62 and free throws ironically clinched the victory after such a dismal night for the Cerritos College; that shot 62.7 percent at the charity stripe.
“It was ugly first of all, I guess you can say the free throws even though we didn’t make a lot of them,” said guard Andrew Torres about things that hurt them throughout the game.
“A couple at the end clinched it; I was just playing with energy wanting to win.”
Torres added, “We just lacked composure, that’s it, just swinging the ball around and trying to find the open man.”
Cerritos College hopes to limit the turnovers and take advantage of more opportunities for Friday’s game at home against Pasadena City College.
“We played as a team and there was great effort off the bench,” said forward Terence Traylor about the team’s overall performance. “We still lacked a lot of energy.”
Cerritos College will host Pasadena City College on Friday in the first game in the newly renovated Falcon Gymnasium. Tip-off for the contest is scheduled at 6 p.m.
