Glendale Community College men’s basketball headed to CCCAA tourney
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It has been a borderline spectacular turnaround for the Glendale Community College men’s basketball team as it has gone from a three-win season ended by forfeits to a 12-win campaign coupled with a third-place Western State Conference Southern Division finish.
Glendale’s turnaround grew even more impressive on Monday as the Vaqueros received a berth into the California Community College Athletic Assn. Championships Tournament, where they will travel to face Mira Costa College on Wednesday at a time to be announced.
Seventeenth-seeded Glendale (12-14) tied for third in the WSC South with Citrus and L.A. Valley, while Mira Costa (14-13) took third in the five-team Pacific Coast North Division. The winner will move on to face Southern California Regional Bracket No. 1 seed Saddleback (27-1) on Friday or Saturday in the second round.
GCC, which lost at Saddleback on Dec. 30, 62-47, finished 3-20 last season with the final two games of the season forfeited as the team couldn’t field ample numbers.
Coach Vigen Jilizian was the interim coach then, but this is his first season sans the interim tag since taking over for Glendale Community College Hall of Famer Brian Beauchemin. Beauchemin’s final season, in 2013-14, saw GCC advance to the third round of regional play.
Winners of three straight, Mira Costa is led by sophomore guard Buddha Boyd’s 22.1 points per game along with eight rebounds and three assists, while freshman forward Aashad Womack is putting up 11.7 points and nine rebounds per contest.
For GCC, which has lost two in a row ahead of the postseason, it has three players averaging double-digit scoring in sophomore guard Jeri Mask (12.5 points per game), freshman center Ange-Michel Kuo (11.5) and freshman guard Cesar Reyes (10.2).
While Glendale is the only team in the SoCal bracket with a sub-.500 record, it lost to eighth-seeded Moorpark by just four points, owns a win over 20th-seed Ventura and split its two-game division series with No. 7 Antelope Valley and No. 9 Bakersfield.