Cerritos Faces Mt. San Antonio in One-Game Playoff

Cerritos College will get its third and final chance to win the South Coast Conference basketball championship tonight when the Falcons play Mt. San Antonio in a one-game playoff for the title at 7:30 tonight at Cypress College.

Cerritos (13-3 in conference and 22-6 overall) needed to win only one of its two remaining regular-season games last week to clinch its third straight championship, but the Falcons were upset by Orange Coast on Saturday and by Cypress on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Mt. San Antonio (13-3, 26-4) beat Cypress and Fullerton to gain a first-place tie.

Cerritos beat Mt. San Antonio in the final minutes of both of their regular-season meetings. In their first game, the Falcons edged the Mounties, 55-51, and in their second game two weeks ago, Cerritos won, 66-64.

The winner of tonight’s playoff not only will be the SCC champion, but it will also be a seeded team in the State Community College playoffs that begin in two weeks. The loser will host fifth-place Cypress in a first-round game of the Shaughnessy playoffs on Monday night. Also on Monday, third-place Fullerton plays fourth-place Orange Coast in another first-round Shaughnessy playoff game.