The Cerritos College Falcons men’s basketball team bested the El Camino Warriors again in a 101-90 rematch on Valentine’s Day, 2025.
The home game match for the Falcons started tight as the two teams were neck-and-neck for much of the first half of the game – the Warriors put up a tough offense by scoring several three-pointers, but the Falcons held on.
Of particular interest on the Falcons’ side was their decision to start the game with Kade West, a deaf player on their team – West played a major role as he scored the opening points of the game with a three-pointer.
“I was really excited, I was shocked,” West said, “I thank God – It’s been hard practicing these past four years.”
“I was a little nervous. It was my first experience being a starter – and then I started to feel good. I’m shocked still that that shot went in, but I was nervous,” West added.
As for how Cerritos responded to El Camino’s offense, Russ May, the head coach of the Cerritos’ men’s basketball team, said, “I think we tightened up a little bit better and made them take quicker shots.”
May continued, “We were able to rebound the ball and get easy buckets on them.”
“That’s how they play, they like to shoot a lot of threes and live by the sword and die by the sword as they say so we were able to capitalize on that and get as many layups as possible,” he continued.
The second half of the game saw a more one-sided performance from the Falcons as they were able to take full control of the game.
The Falcons came out more aggressive on both sides of the ball and matched the physicality of the Warriors.
“Since they sub in, five in and five out, it’s basically fresh bodies every three minutes, you gotta play knowing it’s a fresh body every single time and they are all playing hard,” Spencer Ezewiro said.
Ezewiro added, “When they started scoring I think we started realizing that we got to sit down, lock in, regroup, and play defense.”
Cerritos shot at a high 59% from the field in the second half and captured the biggest lead of the game at 22 with two minutes left in the game.
Some of the top-scoring players of the game for Cerritos were from the backcourt duo of Dillon Bots and Darron Henry.
The Falcons also got a great burst from the reserves as the team scored 56 bench points with Marcel Hayes providing a much-needed 19 of those points.
“I brought the energy off the bench that I needed to bring and that we needed as a team, and simply went out there and did what I needed to do,” Hayes said.
This was an important game for the Falcons to win as the season is coming to an end every game matters for seeding in the playoffs.
Next up, The Falcons stay home and take on school rival, the Long Beach City College Vikings on Feb. 19.
