Eagles Hold Off COD; Stevens Hits 1,000 Points for Career

The MSJC men's basketball team improved to 5-1 in Inland Empire Athletic Conference play and 17-1 overall Wednesday night as they held off a determined College of the Desert squad 107-102 at home.

The Eagles led 48-44 at the half and had a couple of chances to pull away in the second, but the Roadrunners stayed in the game until the end behind some hot shooting.  COD finished the game shooting 57% from the field, but the MSJC pressure defense forced the Roadrunners into 27 turnovers and the Eagles reeled in 28 offensive rebounds to come away with the win.

Five Eagles finished the night scoring in double figures led by BJ Brown's 27, he also passed out a game best 8 assists.  Isaiah Skinner stuffed the stat sheet once again as he recorded a double double with 23 points and 12 rebounds, he also had 6 assists and 6 steals.  Elijah Shirley and Isiah Shirley both had 14 points for MSJC in the victory.  Dasean Stevens added 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists for the Eagles as he surpassed the 1,000 point mark in his MSJC career.  Wilfred Weir led COD with a game high 33 points.

Stevens scored 609 points during his freshman campaign for the Eagles, averaging 21 points per game, so far this season he has 406 points and is averaging 22.6 per contest.  Stevens is just the 27th player in the history of the program to reach the 1,000 point mark, the Eagles still have 10 regular season games remaining.

The Eagles win on Wednesday night sets up a showdown with Chaffey on Saturday afternoon in Rancho Cucamonga.  Chaffey will enter Saturday's contest a perfect 6-0 in conference play, they are 16-2 overall.  MSJC and Cerro Coso both stand at 5-1 in IEAC standings just a game behind the Panthers.  Saturday's game at Chaffey will follow the MSJC women's game with tip-off of the men's game set for 3 pm.