Wayne Chapman’s buzzer beating attempt to win the game was well long, as the Cerritos Men’s basketball team lost to LA Trade-Tech, 79-78, at home on Nov. 12.
Although trailing for nearly the whole game, the Falcons fought their way back and took their first lead with only 1:41 remaining, but it was not enough. Austin Bowen scored what would become the game-winning shot for the Beavers with 21 seconds left on the clock.
The loss put Cerritos at 2-2 on the season, while LA Trade-Tech improved to 2-0 with the win.
Newly appointed head coach Russ May was less than impressed with the way his team played in its home debut.
“Terrible. We played terrible tonight, May stated. “We gave up way too many points out there.”
The Falcons were able to force LATT into committing 23 turnovers in the game, but it was the effort that May feels was lacking even more than the results.
“We didn’t compete on defense. We’re talented enough to score, but guys need to decide they want to stop people,” he said.
Despite what May saw as a lack of defensive effort and terrible play, the Falcons found a way to get back into the game late in the contest.
They finally took the lead off a three-pointer from Greg Howell with 1:41 left in the game.
Howell, who finished the game with 10 points, felt the team dug itself too big of a hole early on and it took it too long to get out.
“From the start they came out ready and we got caught back on our heels, Howell pointed out.
“As the game went on, we slowly started to do little things right. We have the talent, but we used it too late,” he added.
The talent on the offensive end for Cerritos was apparent, with five different players scoring double digit points. Chapman and forward Ramon Williams led the team with 12 points each.
For the Beavers, forward Austin Bowen was the game’s high scorer with 21 points and Center Yashin Ali added 17 points to go along with his 11 rebounds.
Bowen, listed at 6’6, and Ali at 6’7 was at least two inches taller than anyone guarding them throughout the night. Both players made the most of their size advantage against the Falcons early on, but faded toward the end of the game.
The Beavers’ head coach, Richard Wells, acknowledged that the game plan coming in was to exploit his team’s size advantage, but the speed of Cerritos forced those plans to change,
“We expected the game to be close, so the idea was to expose our size, but our post players were not ready. (Cerritos’) quickness caught them by surprise, and the interior passing wasn’t quite there for us,” Wells said.
Despite the win, Wells, like May, feels his team is capable of playing at a much higher level.
“We need to learn how to close the door. We go up and we fall asleep, and let the other team back in it,” he remarked.
Howell and his teammates realize that in order to not only come back, but take over in games they cannot rely on the competition relapsing; they know it will have to be their defense.
“It all comes down to defense. We have to make one stop at a time, because that’s what it comes down to, getting stops,” explained Howell.
Cerritos will have a chance to prove that it is able to get the stops it needs when the Falcons play in the Irvine Valley Tournament on Nov. 19. The tournament will continue through Nov. 21.
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