Here is my game-by-game summary for the 7 games I attended at the 2013 Cerritos JUCO Slam on Saturday, July 27th.
Santa Monica 51, San Diego Mesa 47:
Madison Higgins scored 16 pts and William Taylor came off the bench for 10 to lead Santa Monica to a 4-point win over SD Mesa in the first game on the main court at the 2013 Cerritos JUCO Slam.
Santa Monica never trailed, but Mesa tied the score at 38 with 7:40 left in the second half. Michael Ratliff and Admassu Williams made 2-pt free throws to break the tie and Higgins scored offf a pass from Taylor to make it 44-38.
Mesa got within a point at 46-45 on a basket by Darreon Tolliver off a pass from Diondrey Holt with just under two minutes to go. But Higgins hit a short jumper with 1:30 left and a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left to push Santa Monica's lead to six points at 51-45 and keep the Corsairs in control.
Santa Monica led by as many as 7 points in the first half, taking a 15-8 lead after a 3-pointer by Taylor. Mesa got within a point at 21-20 and trailed, 25-24, at the half.
Santa Monica pushed its lead to as many as nine points early in the second half. Jerry Sheldon and Higgins made 3-pointers, and Higgins later scored after stealing an inbounds pass to make it 35-26. But Mesa rallied to tie the score at 38 on a basket by Tolliver off an assist by Holt with 7:40 left.
Higgins led Santa Monica with his 16 pts, which came on 7-for-12 from the floor. Taylor had 10 pts, making 4 straight shots at one point. Sheldon had 5 pts and a game-high 7 asts. Markus Harris had 5 pts and a team-high 6 rebs.
Mesa lost despite spectacular games from both Tolliver and Holt. Tolliver poured in a game-high 20 pts and added a game-high 9 rebs and 2 steals. Holt had 18 pts plus 7 rebs and a team-high 5 asts. But their Mesa teammates combined for just 9 points.
Long Beach 62, Santa Barbara 31:
Kristien Owens scored 18 pts, including 3 three-pointers, and Chris Camper scored 12 as Long Beach City romped past Santa Barbara, 62-31, in a 12 O'Clock game.
Long Beach City jumped out to an early 10-0 lead after a long 3-pointer by Owens, and was never threatened. The Vikings led, 28-8, at the half and led easily the rest of the game.
Owens made 6 of 8 shots from the floor, including three 3-pointers, and had 2 steals. Camper had 12 pts and added 3 rebs, 3 asts and a steal. Overall Long Beach shot 46% from the floor.
Alonzo McCain led Santa Barbara with 8 pts and 3 asts. But SBCC shot just 27.5% from the floor and had 19 turnovers. Trent Rowser had 3 pts and grabbed a game-high 6 rebs.
Irvine Valley 42, Miramar 38:
Declan Daly scored 16 pts and added 7 rebs, 2 asts and 2 blocked shots to lead Irvine Valley to a 4-point win over Miramar.
Daly scored on a putback with 30 seconds left to break a 38-all tie, and then after a Miramar turnover clinched the win for Irvine Valley with a pair of free throws with 11.3 seconds left, making it 42-38 and closing out the scoring.
All that came after Miramar led most of the game. The Jets jumped out to an early 10-5 lead. Irvine Valley rallied to tie it 10-10 on a Daly putback, but then Miramar scored the game's next 8 points and took an 18-10 lead after back-to-back 3-pointers by Justin Hebner.
IVC rallied again to the score at 20 late in the first half, but Miramar went back in front on a slam dunk by Chris Sherwood after a steal by David Taylor in the closing seconds of the half, taking a 22-20 lead at the break.
Miramar scored the first four points of the second half to lead, 26-20, but the Irvine rallied to take a 29-28 lead on a free throw by
Daly, a transfer from Mira Costa, made 5 of 6 shots from the floor and all 4 of his free throws and ended up with game-highs with his 16 pts and 7 rebs. He was the only Laser to score in double digits. Shaquille Hunter scored 8 pts and Jimmy Golden scored 6.
For Miramar, McPherson scored a team-high 10 pts and had 2 steals. Hebner came off the bench for 8 pts, all in the first half. Sherwood had 6 pts and 3 rebs, and Cole Brewer had 4 pts, a team-high 6 rebs and a game-high 5 asts.
Palomar 55, Desert 34:
Aaron Roedl scored 14 pts and Palomar broke open a close game with a 19-0 second-half run en route to a 21-point thrashing of College of the Desert.
The first half was played on mostly even terms, and Palomar held a modest 23-18 lead at halftime. And the Comets led, 34-29, early in the second half.
Then came the 19-0 run, which propelled Palomar to what became an easy win. Roedl hit a 3-pointer to give the Comets a 39-31 lead, and Justin Hentley made a jumper to make it 41-31. Ben Burris scored on a putback, and then threw down a dunk after a steal by Joshua Hart to make it 45-31 with 5:15 left. Then Hart scored on a driving lay-up to make it 47-31. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Jared Kane made it 53-31, and Burris closed out the run by scoring off a pass from Hentley to make it 55-31.
Roedl's 14 points led all scorers, but amazingly he was the only Palomar player to score in double digits. Burris had 8 pts on 4-for-5 from the floor. Dayton Boddie had 7 pts and a team-high 5 rebs.
For Desert, Mike Karimu scored a team-high 10 pts on 5-for-8 from the floor. Nyjal Cunningham had just 2 pts but grabbed a game-high 6 rebs. Reece Lemon came off the bench for 6 pts and 5 rebs. Juan Flores III came off the bench for 6 pts on a pair of threes.
Glendale 42, LA Southwest 26:
Gor Plavchyan scored 11 pts and added 7 rebs and 3 blocked shots to lead Glendale to a 16-point win over LA Southwest.
Glendale led most of the way over an LA Southwest team that was missing starting point guard Sheldon Wright and 6-10 Brandon Jamar, both in Las Vegas for the All-American JUCO Showcase.
Glendale went on a 10-0 run to break a 10-10 tie to lead 20-10 at the half. Southwest got within six points at 30-24 early in the second half, but then Glendale pulled away for good. A 3-pointer by Desmond Flentroy made it 45-34 with 6:40 left. A 3-pointer by Santiago Grady made it 40-26 and sealed the win for the Vaqueros.
Plavcyhan made 4 of 6 shots from the floor for his game-high 11 pts, and his totals of 7 rebs and 3 blocks were also game-highs. Grady made all 3 of his shots, including a pair of threes, for 8 pts. Flentroy had 5 pts, 4 asts and 2 steals.
For Southwest, Reggie Fields scored a team-high 6 pts. But the Cougars shot just 24% with 14 turnovers and no 3-pointers.
Fullerton 55, Desert 52:
Joel Brokenbrough scored 17 pts and Fullerton posted its first win of the summer season with a narrow victory over College of the Desert.
Fullerton had dropped its first 5 games of the summer session, most in agonizingly close fashion, but managed to pull out a narrow win over a scrappy Desert team.
Neither team led by more than 6 points in a closely-played game. Fullerton seemed to have things under control with a 50-45 lead with a minute left. But Desert got a 3-pointer from Mike Karimu and was within two points several times in the final minute, and Fullerton's win wasn't secure until Zachery Waites' last-second half-court desperation 3-point shot that could have tied the game missed.
Desert led most of the first half, taking a 20-14 lead and holding a 22-18 lead at the half. Fullerton took a 40-37 lead on a 3-pointer by Ramiz Michail with 9:20 left. Desert went back in front, 42-40., on a 3-pointer by Juan Flores III, but Brokenbrought put Fullerton back on top with a jumper off an inbounds pass that made it 46-45.
Brokenbrough made 2 free throws with 2 minutes left to make it 48-45, and Michail scored off a pass from Amin Sahwani to make it 50-45. Karimu's 3-pointer got Desert back within two points, and Desert was again within two points at 54-52 after Karimu made 2 free throws with 9.9 seconds left. Roger Hamel made the first of two free throws for Fullerton with 3.9 seconds to go. He missed the second, leaving it a one-possession game, but Desert was out of timeouts and could get nothing better than Waites' desperation heave in the final seconds.
Brokenbrough led all scorers with 17 pts and also grabbed a team-high 7 rebs and blocked 2 shots. Michail had 12 pts and Hamel had 10 pts and 4 asts. Sahwani came off the bench and did not score but dished out a game-high 5 asts.
For Desert, Karimu and John Howard each scored 9 pts. Nicholas Cook and Flores each scored 8 pts. Nyjal Cunningham had 4 pts and pulled down a game-high 8 rebs.
LA Southwest 43, Rio Hondo 35:
Thurman Thomas scored 12 pts and Reggie Fields scored 11 as LA Southwest rebounded from a lackluster effort against Glendale at 4 pm to stun Rio Hondo, 43-35, in the day's finale on court 3.
Rio Hondo entered the game with a sparkling 4-1 record on the summer, but Southwest came out firing and took a 14-point second-half lead. Rio Hondo rallied to get within two points with 1:38 remaining, but Southwest held on for the win with Thomas making 4 free throws in the final 30.4 seconds to secure the win.
Southwest scored the game's first 4 points and led wire-to-wire. A basket by Adrian Brayboy off a pass from Brian Dotch pushed the lead to 13 points at 20-7 late in the first half, and Southwest led, 22-12, at the break.
Marcus Ford started the second half with a 3-pointer for Southwest to push the lead to 25-12. After a 3-pointer by Thomas, Southwest held a 30-16 lead and seemed in complete control.
Then Rio Hondo rallied, nearly overcoming what seemed to be an insurmountable lead in a running-clock game. Reggie Cayless scored on a lay-up to cut the deficit to single digits at 30-22 with about 9 minutes left. Tim Gordon hit a 3-pointer to bring Rio Hondo within five points at 30-25 about a minute later.
Rio Hondo got within four points on a steal & lay-up by Gordon with 1:50 left. Then Justin Elliott stole the inbounds pass and scored to make it 37-35 with 1:38 left. But that's as close as Rio Hondo would get.
After a timeout, Southwest got a basket from Justin Holder off a pass from Damon Horton with 1:15 left to make it 39-35. Neither team scored again until Thomas made a pair of free throws with 30.4 seconds left to push Southwest's lead to 41-35. He added two more free throws with 9.9 seconds left to clinch the win for Southwest.
Thomas led all scorers with his 12 pts and he also had 4 rebs, 2 asts and a steal. Field had 11 pts, 3 rebs and 2 steals. Ford had 8 pts and 4 asts, and Brayboy had 8 pts on 4-for-4 from the floor.
For Rio Hondo, Gordon came off the bench for a team-high 11 pts. No other Roadrunner, however, scored more than 5 points. Shawn Benn had 4 pts and a team-high 4 rebs.
Other results:
Irvine Valley def El Camino
Box Scores Available (NYE=Not Yet Entered)
Santa Monica 51, SD Mesa 47
LA Harbor def Chaffey
LA Harbor def Santa Barbara 48-47. Harbor rallied from 47-42 deficit in last minute.
Antelope Valley def Fullerton. AVC had big early lead and barely won 43-40.
Santa Ana def LA Pierce
Rio Hondo def Cypress
LA Pierce def Antelope Valley
Santa Ana def Palomar
LA Trade Tech def Cypress
Long Beach 62, Santa Barbara 31
Irvine Valley 42, Miramar 38
Palomar 55, Desert 34
Glendale 42, LA Southwest 26
Fullerton 55, Desert 52
LA Southwest 43, Rio Hondo 35
Event Summary
