Without Lawyer, Griffins nearly make case against Tartars

By ECS Staff
Updated: December 17, 2015

2015-16 COMMUNITY COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL

By James McHugh

© East County Sports.com

EL CAJON (12-17-15) — Grossmont trailed 29-32 headed into the break Wednesday night (Dec. 16) against El Camino Compton Center on the Griffins home court. Grossmont was without guard REMY LAWYER. Despite a heated battle the Griffins dropped the contest 77-75.

“Remy has been sick the last two days,” assistant coach KEVIN BUTTY said after the game. “We missed his offense tonight.”

SPENCER VERING netted 13-points in the opening half, helping the Griffins stay within striking distance headed to half time. After the break Grossmont quickly used a 7-0 run to erase their deficit, aided by two KAELEN MITCHELL field goals, one from downtown.

The Tartars continued yielding open looks and the Griffins found their stroke. Another five points from Vering and four from Mitchell helped Grossmont build a 50-39 lead with 13-minutes to play. DANIEL McCOWN also pitched in with four points during the Griffins run and finished the night with 15 points, 13 of those coming in the second half.

With 10 minutes to play El Camino Compton had cut the Griffins’ lead to one at 56-54. A costly turnover for the Griffins on an inbound helped the Tartars to within a basket on a hoop and foul from Calvin House.

MARCOS MEZA built the Grossmont lead back to four, beating House to the lane for a layup before a Dominique Miles three pointer brought El Camino Compton to within one and a Ralph Kellum three gave the Tartars the lead at 60-58. Michael Chavers hit a shot in the lane with 6:34 to play as El Camino Compton continued on what would eventually be an 8-2 run.

Grossmont trailed 60-64 with just under five minutes to play as Vering and McCown each found their way to easy lay ups. The Griffins continued to struggle on defense though, allowing a slew of offensive boards and second chance baskets. With four minutes to play the Tartars had built a six point lead at 68-62.

“We started the second half exactly how we wanted to,” Butty said of the Griffins’ defense. “Without REMY we had some guys in spots they hadn’t played much before and it was like having guys in the wrong spot and they ate us up for a while in the second half,” Butty said of El Camino Compton’s comeback.

McCown cut the lead in half on an assist from Meza then reduced the El Camino lead to one when Meza stole an errant pass and dished to McCown for a layup with 2:59 to play. Grossmont trailed 67-68.

Marquis Harris hit two free throws for the Tartars with 38 seconds to play to build the El Camino Compton lead back to four points.

Marcos Meza netted a layup to cut the lead to two at 71-73 before Miles headed to the line and drained one of two free throws with just 18.3 to play. Meza once again found his way to the hoop for a lay in and the Griffins trailed 73-74 with 9.5 to play.

Back and forth free throws and lay ups left the Griffins trailing by one with 1.9 to play and Harris headed to the line for El Camino Compton once again. Harris hit the first free throw before missing the second, leaving Spencer Vering only a full court effort to see if a miracle was in store but the shot fell well short and the Griffins fell 75-77.

Marcos Meza had a great night statistically, finishing with 12 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and six steals. Vering was the team’s high scorer with 22-points on 8-12 shooting, including 4-6 from three point range.

El Camino-Compton Center at Grossmont
@ Grossmont
12/16/2015 at 5:00 PM

El Camino-Compton Center
77

Grossmont
75

FINAL	1	2	T
El Camino-Compton Center (4-6)	32	45	77
Grossmont (7-4)	29	46	75

#	STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
El Camino-Compton Center
2	Calvin House	37	9-11	0-0	0-1	2	5	7	3	1	0	3	0	18
5	Michael Chavers	33	5-9	0-1	0-0	1	2	3	2	2	1	3	5	10
10	Alonzo Taylor	24	2-5	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	0	1	0	1	1	4
21	Taylor Tittle	35	2-4	0-0	2-2	1	2	3	3	2	0	3	3	6
22	Marquise Harris	38	6-20	2-9	7-8	2	5	7	3	1	2	3	2	21
#	RESERVES	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
4	Dominique Miles	8	1-2	1-2	1-2	0	0	0	3	1	1	0	2	4
11	Ralph Kellum	10	3-5	3-5	1-4	0	1	1	2	1	0	0	4	10
12	Kyvonte Davis	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	Khiree Johns	5	1-3	0-0	0-0	2	3	5	0	1	0	1	1	2
15	Devin Reed	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
20	Ivan Coe	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
23	Jamon Bellard	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
24	Phillip Harris	10	1-2	0-0	0-0	0	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	2
32	William Gibson	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TM	Team					0	0	0				0	0
TOTALS			30-61 49.2%	6-17 35.3%	11-17 64.7%	9	21	30	17	10	4	14	18	77

#	STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Grossmont
4	Marcos Meza	40	5-7	0-0	2-4	3	7	10	7	6	0	3	2	12
5	Daniel McCown	39	6-13	2-9	1-2	0	3	3	1	1	0	2	1	15
15	Spencer Vering	37	8-12	4-6	2-4	3	4	7	0	1	0	0	3	22
23	Kaelen Mitchell	39	6-14	2-7	0-1	2	4	6	0	1	0	1	2	14
24	Luke Jackson	32	2-7	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	2	4
#	RESERVES	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
0	Dominique Walker	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
1	Remy Lawyer	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	Corwin Feerick	8	1-5	0-4	0-1	2	2	4	1	0	0	1	2	2
20	Larry Stokes	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
22	Quadarius Fair	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	4	4	0	0	2	1	0	0
25	LeAndre Powell	1	1-1	0-0	1-1	0	2	2	0	0	0	3	1	3
32	Ervin Shepherd	3	1-2	1-1	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	0	3
TM	Team					0	0	0				0	0
TOTALS			30-62 48.4%	9-28 32.1%	6-13 46.2%	10	26	36	13	9	2	15	13	75

EL CAMINO-COMPTON CENTER	TEAM STATISTICS	GROSSMONT
49.2% ( 30-61)	Field Goal %	48.4% ( 30-62)
35.3% ( 6-17)	3pt Field Goal %	32.1% ( 9-28)
64.7% ( 11-17)	Free Throw %	46.2% ( 6-13)
30	Rebounds	36
17	Assists	13
14	Turnovers	15
27	Points off Turnovers	18
10	2nd Chance Points	13
26	Points in the Paint	34
6	Fastbreak Points	14
18	Bench Points	8
14	Largest Lead	13
1st-17:08	Time of Largest Lead	2nd-14:27
Ties: 2; Lead Changes: 4