Corsairs beat Knights with no time left

By Nick Pellegrino
Updated: February 28, 2019

East County Sports staff report

SANTA MONICA (2-28-2019) – The one bug-a-boo for the San Diego City College men’s basketball team came back to haunt them in Wednesday’s (Feb. 7) opening round of the CCCAA playoffs.

The Knights, the 2017 state champions, again failed to hold onto a late lead, as host Santa Monica rallied in the final seconds to claim a 76-74 decision. The Corsairs (1’s second round contest at East Los Angeles.

San Diego City led by 12 points late in the first half, then still maintained a lead with 8 minutes remaining. However, Santa Monica answered with an 8-point run to move in front for the first time since the intermission, with the sides exchanging the lead the rest of the way.

Down the stretch, Santa Monica guard Marcus Harris sank a 3-point shot to tie it at 72-all with 10 seconds left. SDCC had the last shot to registered the road upset, yet the Knights again did not react well following a timeout — just like in a pair of losses to Southwestern to decide the South Division title of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference.

The Corsairs all-but-handed the victory to City when a player got called for both a foul and a technical foul. Joseph Riley sank both technical foul shots for a 74-72 lead with 6 seconds left, but another player missed on the front end of a one-and-one, as Santa Monica hustled down the court with the ball.

The official game report on the CCCAA state website was not clear. It stated that Harris made a game-tying layin with 1 second to go while there was also a City foul. However, the foul was not on the shooter, but another player, so instead of Harris, Teddy Parham shot and converted the game-winning free throw.

Riley led San Diego City (16-13) with 16 points. Three others Knights — Nashom Carter (14), Kai Huntsberry (14) and Robby Robinson (11) — also scored in double figures.

For Santa Monica (18-11), Kyle Young led all scorers with 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the floor. Harris added 17, while LeAndrew Knight had 14.

Allan Hancock 77, Miramar 74: In Santa Maria, with short notice to make one of the longest-possible road trips in the South Regional, the Jets nearly pulled off the upset after trailing by a many as 12 points in the second half.

Artis Chapman paced Miramar with 24 points, while Damien Miller registered 14 of his 20 points in the second half, but the Jets simply ran out of time to gain the upset of the host Bulldogs.

Chapman capped a 15-2 run to give Miramar a 60-58 lead on a 3-pointer with 9 minutes remaining, with the advantage stretch to 66-62 on a Cole Cummings layin with 5:33 left.

Allan Hancock answered with a run to grab a 74-68 lead, but a Chapman triple cut the deficit to 74-73 with 1:49 to go. However, both sides missed highly-contested shots in the paint until the Bulldogs’ Glenn Jordan scored inside with 15 seconds on the clock to win I, followed by a Spirit Ricks free throw to seal it.

For the Jets (16-12), Miller also recorded 8 assists.

Allan Hancock (22-6) received 21 points from Jordan, while Ricks and Diego Lucas added 12 each.

The Bullodgs advance to Saturday’s second roun on the road against top-seeded Fullerton

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