In the final week of conference play the men and women’s basketball teams ended on very different notes.

Led by sophomore Christian Perez, the men defeated conference rivals Long Beach City and El Camino. In both games, Perez totaled 46 points, 24 rebounds and seven assist.

The Falcon’s were able to beat Long Beach, sweeping them this season, 78-61 behind Perez’s 19-point, five-rebound game and Tyler Payne’s 19-point, seven-rebound and five-assist game.

Payne said, “I wanted to be aggressive […] this was possibly the last time I could be playing in this gym and its something I want to be able to look back on.”

Aside from the first five minutes of play Cerritos led the entire game, and were able to handle a late push from Long Beach to close out the game.

Long Beach brought the game to only four points with less than nine minutes left before the Falcon’s sparked a run that would lead them to victory.

Head coach Russ May said, “The rebounding by Dezmon Murphy and Brian Nebo changed the course of the game, because they went out and got rebounds the led to transition [baskets].

The women’s season ended with losses to both Long Beach and El Camino to finish the conference 6-4.

They would would match up against Long Beach on Wednesday, Feb. 15, for the second time, and lose 55-35.

The women’s team struggled shooting 20 percent from the field and committed 26 turnovers en route to the teams lowest scoring performance of the season.

Women’s head coach Trisha Raniewicz said, “When it comes down to this time of year it comes down to who wants it more, and I think Long Beach wanted it more.”

The team would play its final game of conference on Friday, Feb. 17 at El Camino. The game would end in a loss with a final score of 86-54.

The loss now knocks the women out of playoff contention, and effectively give El Camino the South Coast Conference title.

Raniewicz said, “I think we lost to a team that deserved to be our conference champs.”

Throughout the course of the game the Falcons struggled shooting 32 percent from the field, and only 16 percent from the three-point line.

Shooting was not the only problem for the team, as it lost three of its eight players due to injury.

First to leave was freshman guard Christina Mina who suffered a head injury at the end of the third quarter and would not return.

Three minutes in to the fourth, freshman forward Alexis Clark left the game with an apparent left ankle injury after driving to the basket.

The third player to leave was freshman guard Angie Ferreira with an apparent leg injury in the final five minutes of the game.

Despite the season ending without a playoff berth, Raniewicz was still proud of her team.

“I love them, they’re awesome people, I really appreciate all their hard work, it’s not easy when things don’t go your way or when you have adversity to stick with things.”

She added, “I love this group, they’ve taught me a lot as a coach.”

Earlier in the evening, the men were able to pull off a 129-125 overtime victory in the teams highest scoring game of the season.

Cerritos led for the majority of the game but was not able to hold off El Camino as a late game push brought them within two with less than 20 seconds left.

With two second on the clock El Camino made a pair of free throws to tie the game at 110 to send Cerritos to its second overtime game of conference play.

The Falcons then outscored El Camino 19-15 to close out the game.

The team was once again led Perez, who finished with 27 points and 19 rebounds and seven assists.

May said, “He’s been a horse for us all year, he’s super talented and he’s got a great head on his shoulder, he deserves everything that comes his way.”

Payne added, “That dude is amazing, I love playing with him […] it’s a pleasure to having a guy like that on our side.”

The win against El Camino capped off a seven game win streak for the Falcons and will now await for the playoff seeding.

The team now await their playoff seeding the team will look to keep a positive mindset heading into the postseason.

The men, seeded at no. 10, will face no. 6 Citrus College Friday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.

Sophomore guard Devan Burrell said, “We have to go in with a killer mindset […] everybody’s zero and zero right now.”

May concluded, “I told the guys, this is the time you want to play and its fun and you have to be able to get out there and go for it.”