Cypress Finishes First Round on Positive Note

The Cypress men’s basketball team cemented its place as the surprise team of the first half of the Orange Empire Conference race with an 81-74 victory over visiting Saddleback on Wednesday.

The second-place Chargers (12-12, 5-2) start the second round at first-place Riverside (6-1 in conference) at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

But this isn’t the same Cypress team that stumbled into conference play having lost seven of eight.

“We’ve found some chemistry we didn’t have before conference started,” Cypress Coach Paul Bottiaux said. “We just got some things resolved as a team.”

Reserve guard Adam Rachlin scored 17 of his team-high 23 points in the first half and Cypress was ahead, 38-26.

“We wanted to come out and play well on our home floor,” Rachlin said.

The Cypress lead grew to as many as 16 early on the second half before Saddleback finally got going.

Cypress went a little more than four minutes without scoring and Saddleback forward Mike Donegan (23 points) scored on a short jumper with 7 minutes 48 seconds left to cut the Cypress lead to 56-52. The Chargers then turned the ball over.

But Cypress got a steal after a Saddleback timeout and Meko Parker (20 points) scored on a layup. After a Saddleback miss, Towan Oliver (20 points) made a three-pointer to give Cypress a 61-52 lead with 6:31 left.

Jerry Inzunza made a pair of three-pointers in the final minute to get Saddleback within five.