COLLEGE BASKETBALL / COUGAR HOLIDAY CLASSIC : Mistakes Cost Canyons in Final

A team that prides itself on playing fundamentally sound basketball made one too many mistakes down the stretch and it proved fatal to College of the Canyons in the championship game of its own tournament Wednesday night.

Cypress defeated Canyons, 75-74, despite the fact that the Cougars had plenty of opportunities to pull ahead in the final two minutes.

Canyons took a 73-70 lead with 3 minutes 50 seconds to play when DeShawn Harvey hit a jump shot, was fouled, and made the free throw, but the Cougars missed three shots and turned the ball over twice on their next five possessions to fall behind, 75-73, with 1:04 remaining.

Canyons forward G.C. Marcaccini, who scored 16 points, had a chance to tie the score at that juncture, but he made only one of two free throws.

The Cougars (9-8) had another opportunity to take the lead after Cypress turned the ball over with 55 seconds to play.

Canyons called two timeouts while working the game clock down to 16 seconds and the shot clock down to 11, but the play the Cougars called during their final timeout never materialized and point guard Cedric Jones was forced to take a long three-point shot as time ran down.

Robbie Shelton rebounded the miss for Cypress (15-4) and was fouled with two seconds to play. He missed both free throws, but Marcaccini’s desperation shot from 65 feet was not close.

“I’m not really sure what happened on that last possession,” Canyons forward Rasaan Hall said. “We were in our blue offense where we run a pick off a high-post screen, but something went wrong. . . . We just made too many mental mistakes.”

Hall, who was wearing a clear plastic mask to protect the broken nose he suffered in a game against Moorpark on Dec. 12, scored a team-high 21 points, making all eight of his shots from the field and four of four free throws.

The former Crespi High standout scored eight consecutive points--and 10 of 11--for the Cougars after center Jason Joynes was benched with four fouls with 15:02 to play.

“I didn’t really make a conscious effort to take over,” Hall said. “I think that’s just the way it happened. The shots just seem to be there.”

Joynes, a 6-foot-9, 270-pound sophomore from Adelaide, Australia, returned with 5:02 remaining but fouled out two minutes later with Canyons leading, 73-72.

Shelton, a 6-7 sophomore forward, had 25 points and 12 rebounds for Cypress.

Antelope Valley 94, East L.A. 77--Akili Carter scored 23 points to lead the Marauders in the consolation final.

Dan Prince had 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists for Antelope Valley (11-4), which made 26 of 38 free throws.