Big Second Half Carries Eagle Men's Hoops to Home Win

The MSJC men's basketball team out scored visiting Cerro Coso 59-34 in the second half on Saturday as they cruised to a 102-70 Inland Empire Athletic Conference victory.

The Eagles led by 7 at the half 43-36 and shot nearly 58% from the field in the second half, including going 7 of 13 from three point range to stay a half game ahead of San Bernardino Valley in second place in the IEAC standings.  MSJC also out rebounded the Coyotes 43-35 on the evening.  The Eagles received big time production off the bench Saturday as 62 points came from non-starters in the game led by Lenzell Simmons who had a game high 26 points.  Sommons also pulled in 6 rebounds and passed out 3 assists.  Danilo Da Silva also came off the bench to score 20 on 6 of 8 shooting from the floor, including going 3 of 5 from distance.  Jamaal Barnes was the only Eagle starter to reach double figures as he finished the day with 18 points and had 5 assists.  Mekhi Hill led the Eagles with 7 rebounds to go along with 8 points.

The win was the Eagles third in a row and their fifth in their last six games as they improved to 12-11 overall for the season.  MSJC is currently 8-3 in Inland Empire Athletic Conference games, Cerro Coso fell to 16-6 overall and 6-5 in the league.  MSJC trails unbeaten Chaffey (11-0) in the conference standings and is currently just ahead of San Bernardino Valley who is 7-3 in league contests.

The Eagles play twice this week as they travel to Victor Valley (9-14, 6-5) on Wednesday for a 7 pm game, and then host first place Chaffey on Saturday at 3.  Both games this week are part of doubleheaders with the women's team.