Men's Hoops Downs Irvine, Loses to Saddleback

The MSJC men's basketball team split a pair of home games against Orange Empire Conference foes last week as they defeated Irvine Valley and lost to Saddleback.

The Eagles started the week on Wednesday with an exciting 72-66 victory over Irvine. MSJC trailed by 3 at the half 38-35 and fell behind by as much as 9 in the second half before rallying for the win. Adrian Mosley made a lay-up with 1:49 left in the game to give the Eagles the lead for good at 67-66, a dunk and a pair of free throws by Tyler Frazier-Mathews helped MSJC close out the victory. MSJC finished the game with a 19-9 run. Mosley scored a team high 20 points in the win while Frazier-Mathews recorded a double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. RJ Dawson scored 18 points in the win and Kory Dodson reached double figures with 10.

Saturday a back-and-forth game with Saddleback turned sour in the final 2:49 of the contest as the Bobcats outscored MSJC 15-1 over that span to win 86-71. In a game that had 7 ties and 9 lead changes MSJC went cold down the stretch and Saddleback capitalized to pull away. Dawson and Daniel Crawford both scored 15 in the loss for the Eagles, Frazier-Mathews had another double double this time with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Mosley finished the game with 12 points and 4 assists.

The loss to Saddleback was the Eagles first of the season and they now stand at 6-1. MSJC will play just once this week when they travel to Citrus on Tuesday. Tuesday's game in Glendora is scheduled to begin at 4 pm.