Eagle Men's Hoops Wins Thriller Over Cerro Coso

The MSJC men's basketball team played an action packed game in front of a loud crowd on Saturday afternoon and came away with a thrilling 100-98 victory over visiting Cerro Coso.

The two teams came out and played at a very high level in the opening 20 minutes as they combined to shoot 36 of 64 from the field and 10 of 19 from three point range as MSJC was able to take a halftime lead of 56-47.  Four Eagles scored in double figures in the first half alone led by Dasean Stevens who had 17.  MSJC cooled off some in the second half and the back and forth battle tightened up with Cerro Coso reclaiming the lead 83-82 with six minutes to play.  In a game that featured 12 ties and 29 lead changes the Eagles were able to make the plays down the stretch and capitalize on their free throw opportunities (29-35) to pull out the victory.

Stevens finished the afternoon with a game high 33 points, Isiah Shirley came off the bench to add 21 for the Eagles.  BJ Brown scored 19 and Isaiah Skinner added 18 while Jackson Bernardo passed out a team best 5 assists and Elijah Shirley pulled in a team high 7 rebounds.

The win was key for the Eagles as it put them in a three way tie for second place in the Inland Empire Athletic Conference with Cerro Coso and San Bernardino Valley, all three teams are just one game behind first place Chaffey.  MSJC is now 19-2 overall and 7-2 in conference play while Coso dropped to 17-4 and 7-2.  The Eagles return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Victor Valley for a 7 pm game, they return home on Saturday to host Palo Verde at 3 pm.