Eagle Men Cruise Past Barstow, Move to 2-0 in IEAC

The MSJC men's basketball team started strong and kept the pressure on all evening as they defeated visiting Barstow College 100-51 on Thursday night in an Inland Empire Athletic Conference basketball game.

The Eagles shot it well from beginning to end on Thursday as they built a first half lead of 40-21.  The Eagles also showed off their defense in the first half as they forced the visiting Vikings into 18 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.  The second half was more of the same as MSJC pulled away for the easy victory.  On the night MSJC out rebounded Barstow 50-34 and shot an impressive 49% going 35 for 71 from the field.

Jamaal Barnes led all scorers in the game with 26 points, he also pulled in 6 rebounds.  Chidi Okwarabizie had a double double for the Eagles as he scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.  Kamien Cederlind also scored 17 in the victory and made 5 of 7 of his three point attempts on the evening.  Mekhi Hill added 11 points for MSJ and all 11 Eagles who played in the game made it into the scoring column.

The win improved the Eagles record to 6-8 on the season and more importantly to 2-0 in Inland Empire Athletic Conference games, while the Vikings fell to 2-12 overall and 0-1 in conference play.  MSJC will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Ridgecrest to take on Cerro Coso College in a 3 pm contest.  MSJC will be back at home next Wednesday, January 8th when they host Victor Valley College as part of a doubleheader with the women's team.  The games on the 8th are scheduled for 5 and 7 pm with the women playing first and the men following immediately after.