M. Basketball; Eagles Take Over Second Place in IEAC with Road Win

The MSJC men's basketball team fought off a pesky Victor Valley team on Wednesday night to avenge an earlier loss this season to the Rams as they came away with a 75-59 road win.

The Eagles played just well enough in the first half to hold a three point lead at the break 32-29.  In the second half it seemed on several occasions that the Eagles were ready to make it a route, but each time they pulled away the Rams fought their way back into the game.  A 13-2 run over the final 2:24 of the contest finally gave MSJC the victory.

Jamaal Barnes continued to be a monster on the offensive end for the Eagles as he scored a game high 38 points on 13 of 28 shooting, he connected on 7 three point shots on the evening.  Kamien Cederlind also reached double figures with 12 points and Mekhi Hill had 10.  Chidi Okwarabizie nearly had a double double as he scored 8 points and hauled in a game high 10 rebounds.

The Eagles have now won 6 of their past 7 and four in a row as they improved to 13-11 overall and 9-3 in the Inland Empire Athletic Conference.  Victor Valley fell to 6-6 in the league and 9-15 overall.  MSJC, who is now in sole possession of second place in the conference, will host first place Chaffey on Saturday.  Saturday's game is part of a doubleheader with the women's team with the women to tip-off at 1 and the men to follow at 3.