Despite losing starting guards Brian Nebo and Salvador Carlos to injury throughout the course of the game, the Falcons still managed to defeat the No. 1 ranked team in the conference.

Cerritos beat EC-Compton in its second overtime game this season, 91-84 to put its conference record at 3-3.

The Falcon’s earned one of the most rewarding victories of the season

Not only because Compton was undefeated in conference, but also because Compton was responsible for the Falcons first loss of the season.

Sophomore guard Devan Burrell said, “It feels good cause we came out here on a mission […] we could have beat them the first time.”

Head coach Russ May added, “[It’s] very rewarding, it was a great ball game.”

The game was highly contested with no team able to jump out to more than a six-point lead the entire first half.

The first half ended 46-41 in favor of Cerritos.

Despite the Falcon’s only being up five, they were plus seven on rebounds and shot better than 50 percent from the field.

The second half was more of the same as the Falcons were unable to stretch their lead .

With 14 minutes left in the game, sophomore guard Salvador Carlos was injured diving out of bounds to save the ball.

He was taken off the court with the help of his teammates and coaches and would not return with an apparent left leg injury.

Late in the second half Cerritos went on a run to push its lead to eight with two minutes left in regulation.

Despite the lead, Cerritos was unable to hold off Compton as they tied the game at 78 with 11 seconds left to force overtime.

Immediately following the opening tip-off to start overtime, sophomore guard Brian Nebo suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to leave the game.

The injury occurred less than 10 seconds into overtime while Nebo was attempting to dribble the ball down the court.

The loss of the two starters led to bench players getting more minutes than usual.

The entire overtime period was played with exclusively bench players who were able to outscore Compton 13-6 and win the game.

The bench was responsible for 36 points and led the team to its third straight victory.

Nebo added, “Im just proud of them [the bench], that’s all I can say, they came and handled their business, they were confident and didn’t let anybody intimidate them.”

Burrell said, “That’s what we bank on […] our subs have to be ready to go in and make an impact on the game.”

Freshman guard Malik Smith played the most minutes of any reserve with 30, he scored 16 points, had six rebounds and four assists.

Dezmon Murphy, freshman forward, came off the bench to play 23 minutes and score eight points.

Other members of the bench like Riley Hamilton, Devan Burrell and Jonathan Guzman combined for twelve points and were three of the players that closed the game out.

May said, “That’s what a team is, you have guys that can come in and pick it up when someone gets injured, and tonight we had that, Riley [Hamilton], Jonathan Guzman and Devan Burrell basically won the game for us.”

Now on a three-game win streak the Falcons remain poised and confident to continue their success.

Burrell said, “We feel good right now, we feel like out chances our good […] so we’re just going to keep going.”

The Falcons next matchup is against LA Southwest, who previously beat Cerritos in the first meeting between the teams.

LA Southwest also defeated Cerritos by one in the first game, but the team feels confident that they can compete with anybody.

Nebo said, “We’ve had confidence, we’re not a team that didn’t have confidence, we just [have] to come out and play every game like we played today [Compton].”

During the team’s three game win streak they have been able to elevate parts of their game to come away with wins.

In the last three games the Falcons have grabbed a total of 141 rebounds which averages out to 47 per game, 10 more than their season average.

The team has also been scoring more, these past three games they have averaged 12 points more than the season average.

Despite the team’s recent success they are still tied for third with LA Harbor in the conference standings and will look focus on the remaining games to make it to playoffs.

May concluded, “We still got four to go.”