It is beginning to sound redundant but the Falcons were able to skate away with a 70-63 win over the Seahawks Friday, Jan. 22 despite shooting poorly from the free throw line.
Following the loss to East LA, sophomore forward Kyle Geer took full responsibility for the loss due his lack of ability to make free throws.
“We just had to pick it up as a team, it’s not just me. We just had to play as a team,” Geer said.
Although Geer scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, he still struggled from the free throw line shooting 1-8 on the night.
“For me it’s mental, growing up I usually hit all my free throws but now its just a mental thing,” Geer said.
With so much difficulty shooting its free throws Cerritos College fans are questioning whether the struggles are mental, mechanics or just plain skill.
“Probably a little of all three,” head coach Russ May said.
After the great game from Geer May said simply, “Kyle [Geer] is a big time player for us.”
After the last game spilling into overtime most teams would like to come out and get a decisive win the next opportunity. However, according to May a win is a win.
“Whether [we] win by one or 20 we’ll take it,” May said.
“But it was a good first conference game for us against [LA] Harbor whose going to be there at the end,” he added.
The Falcons continued to pound the paint.
Sophomore forward Jamal Watson started the game fast however, did not see any minutes in the second half.
“Jamal [Watson] has been playing well, [but] it was a matchup issue defensively. We just thought we could put out guys who were a little bit more interchangeable,” May explained.
In only 11 minutes of play Watson scored six points and reeled in four rebounds.
“There was no frustration really knowing and understanding it was smaller game. It was a matchup issue,” Watson said.
Watson may get more playing time against LA Southwest Wednesday, Jan. 27.
The Falcons scored 22 points in the paint in the second half while the Seahawks scored just 30 total points in the final 20 minutes of play.
Inside, the key wasn’t the only means for points for Cerritos.
This was mainly because of the stellar play for freshman guard Luis Medearis.
“It’s just all the hard work I put in. I redshirted for one year, I was in the gym all year,” Medearis said.
“Me and my little brother would be in the gym getting in work. It was gym, library, homework and then back to the gym,” he added.
Medearis scored 15 points on the night.
The Falcons trailed 41-42 in the second half when Medearis rose from the right wing and nailed a three-pointer with 11:53 remaining in the game.
From that point on Cerritos never lost the lead again.
Despite being a freshman Medearis doesn’t seem to be scared of the big moment and his coach sees it.
“He [Medearis] is playing hard. He has a great attitude, he puts out effort and he’s taking coaching and applied it to his game and I’m just super excited for him,” May said.
