Community College Regional Championship Game : Cypress’ Second-Half Rally Gains Chargers Berth in State Tournament

Cypress College rallied from 10 points down in the second half Saturday night to gain a berth in the community college men’s state basketball tournament.

The Chargers withstood a last-second shot attempt and defeated Rancho Santiago, 64-63, in a Southern California Regional final at Cypress in front of 1,600 spectators.

Rancho Santiago led, 43-33, with 15:20 left, but Cypress went on a 20-8 run and took a 53-51 lead on a pair of free throws by Jim Sammon with 8:10 left. Sammon finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Kris Brodowski led Cypress in scoring with 19.

Cypress built the lead to 60-55 with 6:09 left and then hung on. The Chargers missed the front ends of three one-and-ones in the final 1:48.

The final miss was by Karl Becker with 31 seconds left and Cypress leading, 64-63. Rancho Santiago’s Ralph Garcia got the rebound and the Dons used their final timeout.

Rancho Santiago’s Chris Martin lost the ball with 15 seconds left, but after a mad scramble, Garcia picked it up and shot an off-balance, 15-footer that hit the rim and bounced away as time ran out.

It was the 15th consecutive victory for Cypress (30-5), which next plays in the first round of the state tournament at Santa Clara Thursday. Rancho Santiago, which had lost twice to Cypress already in Orange Empire Conference, ends 25-8.

One of the reasons Garcia took the final shot for Rancho Santiago was that the Dons had lost three starters to fouls.

Alonzo Jamison, Rancho Santiago center, fouled out with 6:44 left. Kenny Ammann fouled out with 4:03 left, and Tony Smalley left with 1:07 remaining.

Amman and Jamison scored 14 each and Smalley 6. Garcia, playing one of his best all-around games, had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Cypress was 20 of 32 from the line, 13 of 20 in the first half. Rancho Santiago was 5 of 8 from the line in the game and didn’t attempt a free throw in the first half.

“My whole thought process was, ‘Get me out of this place’ . . . That was a very tough game,” said Don Johnson, Cypress coach. “When we got down I just told them we had to be more aggressive on our man defense. We needed to get after it better.”

What Johnson used as an example in the timeout taken with 13:09 left was a game last season against Skyline in which Skyline led by 15 at the half before Cypress rallied in the second half for an 82-80 victory.

“Coach just told us to remember the Skyline game,” Sammon said. “It meant nothing to the freshmen, but the sophomores all knew exactly what he wanted us to do and how hard we had to play.”