With 1.5 seconds left in the game, a long inbound pass to the highly defended point guard Manny Garcia, could not be converted into the winning basket for the Cerritos College Falcons men’s basketball team in a 72-71 loss to the Santa Monica College Corsairs last night at Biola University.

Falcons guard, Kevin Conrad gave the Falcons a 71-70 lead after making a jump shot with 12 seconds left in the game.

However, 12 seconds proved to be enough time for the Corsairs to push the ball down the court and get it close enough to the basket where Chris Camper scored the winning basket on a tip-in as the game clock struck 1.5 seconds.

Conrad, the leading scorer for the Falcons, shared his take on the team’s performance in the game.

“It was a hard fought game on both sides but we just need to eliminate the turnovers and of course it’s the first game so we can learn from it like any other game.”

A major contributor to the Corsair’s win was the 28 points they scored from the Falcons’ turnovers.

Head Coach Russ May spoke about the team’s fallout, despite having a 15 point lead at one point in the game.

“You are not going to win a game with 25 turnovers.”

A big momentum changer in the game was when Falcons forward Jonathan Benson was given a technical for hanging on the rim after dunking the ball which led to a quick four points for the Corsairs who began to chip away at the lead.

“We decided to pull on the rim and get a technical and that led to a four point turnaround and it was just lack of discipline.”, May said.

“What we said in the huddle wasn’t transferring on to the field (court).”

According to the head coach there is no doubt his team will get better and produce wins this season while using this loss as an eye opener or ear opener for that matter.

“Hopefully all the things we’ve taught them up until now have some real meaning because of the fact that it is everything we’ve been teaching.”

Falcons center Isaac Okebiorun agrees with coach May’s philosophy.

“We got satisfied being up by 15 points, we should have kept listening to the coach and run the plays and just execute play by play” Okebiorun said.

The Falcons played without starting point guard Anthony Holliday, who was out with a pulled groin muscle, but is scheduled to return to the lineup this week.

The Falcons will have a chance to get their first win of the season at the Irvine Valley Tournament against Cuyamaca College on Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. in Irvine, Calif.