After a long offseason, the Cerritos College men’s basketball team is back in action.
The team has been chomping at the bit to get back on the court since its last appearance was a 68-63 overtime loss to East Los Angeles College.
In the team’s first action since February, the Falcons went 2-1 in the Miramar tournament.
The season opened with a 77-74 win over Rio Hondo College before falling to San Diego Miramar the next night 82-70.
Cerritos would get back into the win column on the last day of the tournament with a 77-59 win over MiraCosta.
In the first two games, the Falcons shot 56 combined three-pointers something that the team believes it has worked on all summer long.
Sophomore guard Tyler Payne said, “We’re stronger in that field this season. We have a lot of depth as far as guys that can stretch the floor and shoot the ball, so we are pretty confident.”
Head coach Russ May sees the trend but understands that it can’t continue.
“We have to get the ball to the basket and take higher percentage shots. We have to get the ball inside and drive to the basket more, we cannot live on that,” he said.
Another noticeable stat for the Falcons was the rebounding during the tournament. In the first game the team out-rebounded Rio Hondo 36-23.
Largely in part to the play of freshman Dezmon Murphy, who had 14 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks.
“I was kind of nervous on the bench to start the game. First play, I came into the game and kicked the friggin’ ball off my leg. Second half the team just fed me ball.
“We were running the same plays and I was doing the same moves, but people just couldn’t stop me,” Murphy said.
The following night, Cerritos tallied 50 more rebounds with Murphy and Jonathan Guzman accounting for 28 of them.
May feels this team is special when it comes to rebounding the basketball.
“I just think we have a really good rebounding group. We have kids that want to go get the ball and that’s going to pay off huge for us down the line,” he said.
One standout during the tournament was Cristian Perez, who sat out last season as a red-shirt.
“It allowed me to work on my game. It allowed me to build my confidence, my freshman season that’s what I struggled with,” he said. “It made me more hungry.”
In the first two games of the tournament Perez scored a combined 28 points on 9-of-20 shooting and 6-for-11 from three-point territory.
May is looking to Perez to fill some pretty big spots for the Falcons this season.
“[Perez] is going to be involved in everything that we do. He is a central figure in everything that we do,” May said.
Everything wasn’t swell for Cerritos as in the first game sophomore guard Brian Nebo was limited to only one field goal attempt after committing four fouls.
“We just have to start adjusting to the referees, because now they call things really close. The rules have changed from last year coming into this year,” he said.
The next night, Payne felt the wrath of the officials after he was limited to only two points after being called for four fouls.
In that game the Falcons committed 22 turnovers.
As a freshman, Murphy understands that in order to have success the team needs its two leaders on the floor.
“It gives us experience on the floor. Even with them being on the bench it helped us because they can show us things and tell us things that we didn’t see,” Murphy said.
The Falcons are back in action Thursday, Nov. 17 at the Irvine Valley Tournament.
