Prior to tip-off head coach Russ May sent his rather empty locker room of players a message.

The message on the whiteboard read, “The magnificent seven rides again.”

“My dad used to watch western movies and one of his favorites was “The Magnificent Seven” with Clint Eastwood. It was a movie about seven cowboys that held off a bunch of banditos,” May said.

Feb. 17 will mark one year since May lost his father. The team will play at El Camino that day.

The team understood his message loud and clear as it responded with a 78-68 win over LA Harbor.

The team was without Elvis Okafor, Brian Nebo and Jamal Watson, who all served a one-game suspension for their roles in the melee with Long Beach City on Feb. 3.

“I think it was a situation where he was trying to protect his team,” James Watson, Jamal Watson’s father, said.

“He thought there was a threat posed by fans so he ran out there so if you commit the crime you have to do the time,” he added.

The team pulled through for its brothers who weren’t allowed to be in attendance for the game.

“Considering that the rest of our season is on the line, it’s huge. We want to make playoffs and we believe we can contend for a state championship so we want to keep this momentum going,” freshman guard Tyler Payne said.

Payne was the hero of the team’s last contest in that comeback overtime win over rival Long Beach City.

The team was also without two assistant coaches Tito Ortiz and Joshua Thomas. Who were not allowed to be in attendance neither.

As if the team needed any more distractions heading into the contest. There was confusion in the starting lineup as Luis Medearis subbed in for Jay Merriweather just 21 seconds into the game.

Things only got worse from there the team started the game 4-19 from the field but managed to build a nine point lead over the Seahawks.

But the never say die attitude in LA Harbor fought back to tie the game at 28 only to have sophomore guard Jonathan Brown nail a three-pointer at the first half buzzer to give Cerritos a 31-28 lead heading into the locker room.

In the second half it was much of the same as both teams traded buckets and misses until sophomore Jay Merriweather was able to put together a string of plays to start the run that would put the game to bed.

“Last year I had to play a lot of big minutes and the team kind of depended on me for my scoring. This year I feel like the team depends on me to make plays, whether its defense, get a rebound, get a steal or get a three it just comes down to making plays that’s what I love to do,” Merriweather explained.

He scored five of his 11 points and grabbed a steal in under two minutes.

A Payne three-pointer followed it and a three-point play by Brown iced the game completely.

“I was just playing off my teammates and I had an opportunity to go so I just made the play,” Brown said.

One positive the team can take away from the win is in the absence of two starters and a important role player the team got the win behind balanced scoring.

Washington had 18 points; Brown added 16 points and six assists and Medearis chipped in with 15 points.

The team will be back at full strength for its Friday contest against the Cougars, however, aside from the shaky start this group proved to work for May.

Maybe it will be possible that May will continue to run with this group despite returning to max capacity.

“That’s up to the coach we just have to come out and play how we did today knowing we didn’t have [everybody]. We just have to come out and play hard no matter the rotation,” Washington explained.