The Cerritos Falcons (14-6) lost 60-64 in a close matchup against the Los Angeles Southwest Cougars (10-8) on Jan. 20.

It was a solid first half for the falcons defensively but it was the second half where they struggled and let their foot off the gas.

In the second half, Cerritos allowed the Cougars to shoot 41% from the field and let them get to the free-throw line 20 times.

The second-half struggles for the falcons continued as they went 8-28 (28.6%) from the field and 3-16 from three (18.8%) which were both a 10% decrease from the first half of the game.

Despite the Falcons’ struggles, they kept this game close throughout all 40 minutes, with 11 ties and 13 lead changes.

No team took a definitive lead until the Cougars took control in the final minutes.

The Cougars dominated on the board and in the paint, out-rebounding the Falcons by 9 and outscoring them in the paint by 8.

The Falcons got great support from the bench, led by Everett May’s 11 points, as he went 3-6 from three and a perfect 2-2 from the free throw line.

Cerritos also took advantage of the 19 turnovers committed by the Cougars by scoring 17 points off of turnovers.

Cerritos’ leading scorer was Gorden Boykins who scored 13 points and shot 57% from the field.

Los Angeles’ Southwest Koron Davis scored 22 points as he broke the game open for LA Southwest, receiving most of his points from the free-throw line.

“We gotta be more aggressive in the 2nd half, we weren’t getting to the free throw line enough,” Coach May after the tough loss said, “And we let them dictate the pace of the game, we just took our foot off the gas for a bit.”

“We did our thing to start but in the second half we weren’t being as aggressive as we should’ve been.”

A very aggressive game and was a tough loss for the Falcons, snapping their four-game win streak, but this is only their 2nd loss in the last nine games.

The Falcons’ next game is on the road as they head to Los Angeles Harbor to take on the red-hot Seahawks (17-3) on Jan. 25 at 7 p.m.