Eagles Hold Off CMC, Move into Solo Second in IEAC

The MSJC men's basketball team moved into second place alone in the Inland Empire Athletic Conference standings on Wednesday night with a 74-73 win over visiting Copper Mountain College.

The Eagles got off to a fast start as they built leads of 9-0 and 15-2 in the opening five minutes of the contest. CMC settled into the game however as the first half went on and MSJC would go to the locker room with a 41-29 halftime lead.

The Eagles held what seemed to be a commanding lead 60-45 with 11:49 left to play, but CMC mounted a strong comeback. The Fighting Cacti shut out the Eagles over the next 7:22 of the game, going on a 16-0 run that gave them a brief 61-60 lead. A pair of free throws by RJ Dawson with 4:27 remaining gave the Eagles the lead back and they were able to hold on down the stretch. Two more free throws this time by Adrian Mosley with just over seven seconds to play gave MSJC a 4-point lead, a CMC three at the buzzer closed the final deficit to one.

Mosley finished the night with 27 points and 12 rebounds, he scored 18 of his points in the second half. Willie Miller just missed a double double as he scored 17 and pulled in 9 rebounds. Dawson also finished in double figures with 14 points while Tyler Frazier-Mathews had 6 points and 7 rebounds to go along with 3 blocked shots. Amarion Wallace led the CMC attack with 18 points.

The win gave the Eagles a narrow one game lead over Copper Mountain for second place in the IEAC standings as they improved to 8-2 in league games and 16-6 overall. CMC is now 14-8 overall and 7-3 in conference both teams are chasing league leading San Bernardino Valley, who is currently 10-0 in IEAC action.

The Eagles have the weekend off before returning to play next Wednesday when they host College of the Desert at 7 pm.