Starting sophomore guards Tyler Payne and Salvador Carlos combined for 40 points in the Falcons 95-86 victory over El Camino College.
Aside from the performance from the backcourt every starter for the Falcons scored in the double digits.
Head coach Russ May said, “Our starters have been carrying the heavy load, we’re going to need them, that’s why they’re starters.”
Coming off its second straight victory the Cerritos men’s basketball team is now 2-3 in conference with five games left to play.
The Falcons jumped out to a big start knocking down four three pointers to give the team an early lead.
El Camino would continue to battle throughout the first half never allowing a lead by more than seven and closing the gap to three points by halftime.
In the second half of play Cerritos struggled to stop El Camino eventually surrendering the lead with 13 minutes left to play.
The Falcons struggled to score as well, and with six minutes left in the game found themselves down 78-68.
Cerritos then went on a 15-4 late run to give them their first lead in more than 10 minutes and never looked back.
“I think we decided that we were going to put some effort in and make some defensive stops,” May said.
Freshman forward Dezmon Murphy said, “We just played better defense, we locked in a realized that getting stops would get us the win.”
Cerritos finished the game shooting 57 percent from the field, while holding El camino to 44 percent from the field and 39 percent from the three-point line. They also out rebounded El Camino 40 to 33.
The victory over El Camino was the second in a row for the Falcons after defeating conference rival’s Long Beach City.
This win now puts Cerritos in a three-way tie for third in the conference with Long Beach City and LA Harbor.
Sitting atop the division is EC-Compton at 5-0, who is the Falcons next challenge.
“It feels good to finally get back to normal,” Murphy said, “Everybody’s focused, everybody’s ready to go.”
Despite being tied for third in conference Coach May has not lost confidence in his team.
“Our guys will be ready to play, we’ve definitely gotten better, we’re just a little bit more confident now,” May concluded.
