Cerritos College men’s basketball team rallied in the second half to comeback to win with a score of 64-59 against El Camino College on Jan. 30 where they extended their winning streak to three games.
“We maybe took too many 3-point shots and didn’t attack the basket. I think the second half we did a better job of attacking the paint and getting the ball inside,” Cerritos head coach Russ May said.
Cerritos offensively struggled in the first half to take a lead as they tried to keep up with El Camino in a close game.
Off a rebound Guard Kamaury Washington made a layup to tie the game at 21 and guard Jaysen Owens made drew a foul where he made two free throws to give Cerritos their first lead at a score of 23-22 with 5:19 to go in the first half.
Cerritos would struggle to keep the lead in the first half and go into the second down 30-25.
The Falcons would play a lot more aggressive in the second half.
Cerritos’s offense was more consistent and allowed them to catch up with El Camino.
Both Guard DJ Holt and Forward Dorian Tate for Cerritos made their free throws to help the team take a 52-48 lead with 6:43 minutes left in the second half.
“Well, in the previous days, I knew I was gonna have a moment like this, so I got plenty of reps in the days and practices coming up to this. I was just ready to step up and knock them down,” said Holt on what was his mentality while he was on the free-throw line.
Tate said, “Just all the work that we put in this whole week and the whole summer, everything like that. Take my time, knock the free throws down, I know I can hit them, so just take my time in, knock them down.”
It was a one-point game with 57.8 second left.
Dorian Tate made two free throws to extend the lead by three points with 45 seconds left in the second half.
Tate added about his performance from the game, “I felt like I definitely could have played better. I was missing a couple shots at the rim, even though I was getting fouled, but I definitely could make those shots, but you know we got the win, so tonight it was good enough tonight.”
Dorian Tate scored 21 points with 11 rebounds and two steals.
Cerritos held on to the lead to win the game with a score of 64-59.
Holt later added about his role in the second half, “Well, I knew our first half wasn’t the great. We gave up a lot of open shots to some great shooters coming into the second half. We just needed to fight. That’s all we did. We came out slow. We need to pick up our energy.”
Coach Russ May said that the bench was the biggest takeaway from the game and is something to prepare for their next game on Feb. 4 as they will play against Long Beach City College.
