Coyotes men’s basketball earns a split at Coyotes Crossover
Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Cerro Coso men's basketball program held for the first time the Coso Crossover tournament. The Coyotes invited Inland Empire Athletic Conference opponent Victor Valley College Rams, Pasadena City College Lancers, and Porterville College Pirates to participate in the two-day tournament.
"It was good. It was the first year we have done it," said head coach Chris Dugan on the Crossover. "I had four coaches that I get along with and they liked it, and I think we did a good job. Casey's was a big sponsor for us, SpringHill Suites (was another big sponsor), it was nice to have people in the community. Hopefully, we can keep building this stuff up. Our admin did a good job of letting us run it because this is a tough time of the year to run it. I thought it was good, and anytime you can bring people to Ridgecrest is nice."
Being conference opponents, the Coyotes and Rams did not face each other. Instead, both teams faced the Lancers and Pirates.
On Friday night, the Rams defeated the Pirates 70-67 in the first game of the tournament. The Coyotes followed by taking on the Lancers but suffered a late second half collapse in a shocking 66-58 loss. On Saturday morning, the Rams faced the Lancers and won 85-82 to go unbeaten in the crossover. The Coyotes took the floor and faced the Pirates to earn a 62-36 bounce back win.
In the comeback win over Porterville, the Coyotes shot 41.4 percent from the field, 28 percent from the three-point line, and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line. Jason Morris led the team with 14 points and three steals. Trent Gordon had 11 points and six rebounds with two on the offensive board. Jami Hagger had 11 points off the bench.
"At this point for a young team, any win is a good win," Dugan said on the comeback win. "The thing I try to explain to these guys is there is a standard and I think we have done a good job of holding these guys to the standard. We are not living up to that standard, and we need to do a better job."
Cerro Coso used a 23-10 start in the first half to take control of the game and put itself in position to earn a win. The players ran Dugan's offensive sets — the Coyotes coach admits his team runs around 30 to 40 sets that include when to move and screens to set — which allowed the Coyotes to score in the paint and get open looks from the three-point line.
On the defensive side, which Dugan said is his team's calling card as they need to be able to grind it out on that side of the ball by being physical, rebound, and contest shots, during the 23-10 run, the Coyotes defense forced the Pirates' offense to start running plays with eight seconds left on the shot clock and into making bad passes.
In the run, the Coyotes opened the scoring with a layup from Tzhari Trevino. The visitors scored a point from the free-throw line and the Coyotes responded with a jump shot from Jon Leggett and a three from Trevino on a pass from Leggett to force a Pirates timeout. After the timeout, the defense forced a turnover, and Trent Gordon scored a layup with the foul and made the free throw to complete the and-one. The Pirates scored on a layup and the Coyotes responded with Gavin Flowers hitting a layup after grabbing his rebound on a missed attempt. Trevino hit a corner three on a pass from Leggett for a 15-5 lead and another Pirates timeout.
The Pirates hit a three after the timeout and Hagger found Gordon open for a dunk. Morris stole the ball for an uncontested layup, then hit a layup on a pass from Trevino, and then after being fouled made both his free throws for a 23-10 lead.
The Coyotes led 29-15 at the half. They held the Pirates to 21 points in the second half after a quick 6-0 run at the start on their way to a win.
In the first game of the tournament, the Coyotes shot 45.3 percent from the field, 9.1 percent from the three-point line, and 60 percent from the charity stripe. Gordon led the team with 28 points and nine rebounds with three on the offensive board. Anthony Edouard had 10 points and seven rebounds with one offensive rebound.
"In seven years as the head coach of Cerro Coso, that was the worst half of basketball that I have ever been a part of," Dugan said of the second half in Friday night's loss.
The first half began with both teams keeping the game the close with each trading leads. After Gordon made a layup on a spin move around a defender for a 23-20 lead, Pasadena City called a timeout. The Lancers hit a jumper coming out of the timeout, and then the Coyotes went on a 6-0 run with Gordon scoring on back-to-back layups and Morris scoring a layup. The home team held the visitors to six points in the final two minutes and scored five points for a 35-28 lead.
The second half had the Coyotes continue to score layups but also unable to get a stop or grab a rebound, allowing the visitors to score. An early timeout had the Coyotes leading 39-33, and Pasadena City scored on a layup and the home team responded with Flowers scoring on an offensive rebound from a missed dunk attempt.
But the visitors stormed back and tied the game at 41-41. Gordon scored on a layup on a pass from Edouard for a 43-41 lead, but the Coyotes gave a point back after being called for a second delay of game and the visitors hit the free throw attempt. After Morris went one for two from the free-throw line, the Lancers tied the game on a layup at 44-44 with 11:21 left in the game.
The Coyotes retook the lead on a layup by Edouard and then extended it to 48-44 when he finished an alley-oop from Leggett. But the Coyotes' offense and defense went cold for the next four minutes, and the visitors not only tied the game but took the lead and punctuated the run with a rare four-point play for a 53-48 lead, forcing a Coyotes timeout.
Gordon ended the Coyotes' cold streak hitting two free throws, cutting the deficit to three, but the Coyotes could not find a way offensively to beat the Lancers' defense. And on the defensive end, many of the Coyotes made too many mistakes, allowing the Lancers to beat them into the paint for an open shot, or didn't do the simple things of grabbing a rebound, giving their opponent a second or third chance to score. The Coyotes fell 66-58 after allowing 38 points in the second half.
Dugan said his team was not mentally disciplined or tough enough to do the things they need to do for a win. He admits this year's team isn't as deep as many of his other squads and the team is dealing with some injuries, but neither is an excuse for the collapse in the second half.
Cerro Coso is on the road for the next four games, including a match at LA Southwest on Wednesday. The Coyotes are then in a two-day tournament at Citrus facing the host team on Friday and Cerritos on Saturday. They close their road trip at Moorpark on Wednesday, Dec. 11, before returning home to host Reedley on Saturday, Dec. 14. That game tips off at 3 p.m.