Community College Basketball : Cerritos Hangs On to Beat Fullerton, 80-76

Cerritos College nearly squandered an 11-point lead in the final two minutes of its South Coast Conference game against Fullerton Wednesday night, but managed to avoid a second upset in five days with an 80-76 victory over the Hornets at Cerritos.

The Falcons, who had their 22-game winning streak snapped Saturday night at Cypress, were ahead by 11 (74-63) with 2:17 remaining against Fullerton. The Hornets took advantage of several Cerritos turnovers and outscored their hosts, 13-4, in the next 2:05 to close to 78-76 with 12 seconds left.

Sophomore guard Bill Buda sank a pair of free throws with 12 seconds remaining to allow the Hornets within a basket of tying the game. On the ensuing inbounds pass, however, the Falcons’ Jerome Hall took a length-of-the-court pass and scored on an uncontested slam dunk with six seconds left to give Cerritos a four-point cushion. Fullerton’s desperation shot at the buzzer was no good.

While Cerritos shot 61% from the field in the first half, the Hornets shot just 30%, but Fullerton trailed by only six at halftime, 39-33. Fullerton shot 48% in the second half and finished the game hitting 29 of 75 shot attempts (39%).

Rocco Meyers led all scorers with 19 points for the Hornets, who slipped to 5-5 in SCC play (11-12 overall). Stevie Snow joined Meyers in double figures with 14 points, Phil Lewis had 12 and Bart Hakeman came off the bench to score 11 points.

Hall was the Falcons’ leading scorer with 18 points, Russ Heicke added 16 and Willie Joseph had 14. Cerritos improved its season record to 23-2 and remained tied with Cypress for first place in the SCC with a 9-1 mark.

FULLERTON (76)--Snow 14, Buda 7, Mansfield 2, Lewis 12, Meyers 19, Fraser 6, Moss 2, Melton 1, Hakeman 11, Fox 2.

CERRITOS (80)--Joseph 14, Wadlington 8, Tolbert 11, Heicke 16, K. Andrews 2, Hall 18, Miller 11.

Halftime: Cerritos, 39-33.

Cypress 70, Orange Coast 62--The Chargers maintained their one-game lead over Cerritos with a win in Costa Mesa. The Chargers (9-1, 19-5) broke the game open by scoring 9 straight points and going ahead 43-34 early in the second half. Bill Dobbs led the Chargers with 16 points and Andy Olivarez added 12 points. Jon Johnston led Orange Coast with 12 points.

CYPRESS (70)--Martineau 8, Gerlach 11, Umans 6, Horn 11, Dobbs 16, Olivarez 12, Swanner 4, Marusich 2.

ORANGE COAST (62)--Johnston 12, Judd 11, McGavran 8, Mulcahey 11, Bickett 9, Stamps 2, Seager 9.

Halftime--Cypress, 32-28

Compton 90, Golden West 68--Chris Williams scored 16 points to lead the Tartans (5-5, 17-10) past the Rustlers at Compton. It was the 26th straight conference loss for Golden West (0-10, 4-17).

GOLDEN WEST (68)-- Straghn 21, Dibbs 17, Smith 14, Emerson 6, Simpson 6, Brown 2, Makoutz 2.

COMPTON (90)-- C.Williams 18, Wiley 17, Flening 12, Crawford 10, Henderson 10, Bullock 8, M. Williams 6, Robin 4, Greenwood 3, Guillory 2.

Halftime--Compton, 51-32

Saddleback 55, Mt. San Antonio 53--Brian Sullivan made a 15-foot jump shot at the buzzer to give the Gauchos (4-6, 9-12) the win at Walnut. The game was a sort of homecoming for Sullivan, who played high school ball at Workman in the Mt. SAC district. He scored all 11 of his points in the second half. James Jones led the Mounties (7-3, 17-6) with a season-high 28 points.

SADDLEBACK (55)--Sullivan 11, Miles 9, Lemon 1, Taylor 12, Desiano 1, Minier 11, Dwinell 6, Magee 4.

MT. SAN ANTONIO (53)--Draper 14, Jarmon 7, Jones 28, Leonard 2, Dagampat 2.

Halftime--Mt. San Antonio, 23-19