East County Sports

Jaguars knock off Knights, lead PCAC

Southwestern's Isaiah Camon dunks against San Diego City on Friday.

2019 COMMUNITY COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL

 

EastCountySports.com staff report

 

SAN DIEGO – In a game featuring two top 10 teams and the last two PCAC champions, the No. 10 ranked Southwestern Jaguars knocked off No. 5 San Diego City, 91-85, on Friday.

Marquavian Stephens led Southwestern (11-4, 3-0 PCAC) with 26 points and five rebounds, while Kai Huntsberry scored a career-high 24 points to go along with seven rebounds and three steals for San Diego City (11-4, 2-1 PCAC).

“We shot terrible and stuck in the game,” Huntsberry said. “We scored 85 points shooting 30 percent for the game and 6 percent from the three. If we shoot a normal percentage we score 125 points. Our best shooters didn’t hit and our leading scorer went 1-of-11 with a bunch of great looks at the basket. I don’t think we will ever shoot this bad again. And our defense will pick up also but we won every single category of the game besides threes and shooting percentage.”

The Knights got off to a slow start as they missed 10 of their first 14 shots and Southwestern took advantage by grabbing an early 21-8 lead.

The Jaguars went ahead by as many as 14 points midway through the first half, but the Knights closed the gap in a hurry with a 10-0 run during a three-minute stretch and went into the locker room down, 44-40.

San Diego City fell behind by eight points early in the second half but responded with a 10-2 spurt to finally tie the game at 56-all with 12:27 left. All 10 of those points were scored on layups as the Knights pushed the tempo.

The Knights tied the game on four more occasions down the stretch, but could never get over the hump as Southwestern had an answer every time.

Huntsberry’s layup with 5:04 remaining tied the game at 72-all, but the Jaguars came back with a layup from Isaiah Camon and a corner three from Raphael Allen to put them up by five.

Huntsberry got the Knights back within a point with 1:52 left after knocking down a pair of free throws, but Southwestern answered with a jumper from Stephens and a 3-point play by Allen as they pulled away for the win.

The Knights had their worst shooting performance of the season from beyond the arc as they made only two of their 29 3-point attempts (6.9 percent). Overall, the Knights shot a poor 35.6 percent from the floor, while Southwestern shot 47.1 percent.

Legend Stamps scored 12 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and blocked three shots for the Knights. Isaac Davis added 13 points and six assists off the bench.

San Diego City will look to bounce back on Wednesday, Jan. 8 as they travel to Imperial Valley for a 5 p.m. game.

MIRAMAR 96, GROSSMONT 83 – Former West Hills Wolf Pack great Cameron Barry scored 26 points to lead the Jets past the host Griffins on Friday.

Barry also grabbed nine rebounds and handed out four assists.

Michael Tate Jr. led Miramar with 35 points.

Miramar led just 46-44 at halftime. The Jets improved to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in the PCAC.

Jamal Johnson led the Griffins with 22 points, while teammate Jabbar Wade added 13 points.

Former El Capitan Vaquero Kade Kygar added 12 points for Grossmont (0-15)

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