Southwestern College men’s basketball team roared into the season-opening Fullerton Classic Tournament, but exited quietly with a win and two loses. Coaches and players, however, said they saw lots to like.
SWC’s first win came against Los Angeles Southwest College, 71-68 in the second round of the tournament. Freshman shooting guard Jay Stone made the first two shots for the Jags to take a 6-4 lead. LA Southwest lead until Stone and sophomore shooting guard Hassan Farah made back-to-back threes for a 11-9 advantage.
Stone and freshman shooting guard Dominique Miller made a majority of SWC’s points, with help from freshman point guard Devonte Sims, freshman shooting guard Robert Perez and Farah. Farah ended the first half with a three and set SWC to the locker room ahead, 42-28.
Freshman shooting guard Jay Stone sinks a three against Irvine College in the first game of the season
In the second half, the Jags found their rhythm. With 15:53 to go LA Southwest made six points compared to SWC’s 14. The Jags went scoreless after that, though, until Miller made a layup to make it, 58-38.
With less than 12 minutes to go the Jags started to commit a lot of errors. Fouls, turnovers and missed free throws hurt the Jags and allowed LA Southwest to catch up, 59-48.
After Perez sunk a three, the Jags were again plagued by fouls and back-to-back turnovers. After another turnover, LA Southwest made a layup, to close to 65-63.
The Jags woke up and started to ball, but it was almost too late. The last point earned was from a made free throw by Stone, 71-68.
“A win is a win, you have to be happy about that,” said Stone. “We are much more intense when our backs are against the wall. Everyone understood we needed a win real bad. The team effort was there, not just the individual effort.”
With a 74-69 loss to Fullerton College, the Jaguars were placed in the consolation bracket.
Both teams were scoreless until Fullerton made a jump shot with a little more than 16 minutes to go in the first half. Freshman point guard Lamar Weston made a jump shot allowing the Jags to be on the scoreboard, 2-2.
The rest of the game was close with SWC and Fullerton trading baskets, but with 5:39 left in the first half Fullerton began to pull away. The Jags did not score until Sims made a free throw with 2:16 left until halftime, 28-19.
The Jags closed with a three by Miller and trailing behind Fullerton, 34-26.
In the second half, Farah opened with a three with 19:02 to go. The Jags didn’t score again until 16:21 to go with a three by freshman shooting guard David Scarafone. The rest of the second half was quiet with a few scattered shots made by the Jags.
With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Farah hit two three-point shots, and Stone made a three and the game ended with a loss for the Jags, 74-69.
“We need to play hard the whole game, not just at the end,” said Sims. “Traveling doesn’t affect us at all. It’s our mental toughness. That’s all it is really.”
Southwestern College men’s basketball team faced Irvine Valley College in the season home opener. The Jaguars tried to get it going late, but succumbed to IVC’s fierce court presence losing 64-59
SWC played hard but IVC played harder. In the first 10 minutes, the Jaguars held IVC to a three-point lead but slowly gap widened. The Jag defense left IVC players wide open and IVC took full advantage. With more than five minutes left in the half, the Jags were down 17-10. After many missed opened shots the Jags were able to close in on IVC. By the end of the first half the Jags were down 26-21.
In the second half the Jags allowed IVC to increase their lead. With 16:46 to go, the Jags were down 35-23. One of the best traits of the Jags is their defense. They played great, aggressive D and pressured IVC, slowing them down and making them work for shots. The Jags created many plays off their full-court press. As the scores grew in difference, the Jag defense looked lost and was slow to find their coverage, but one look at the scoreboard snapped them out of it.
“We got tired,” said head basketball coach John Cosentino. “They are well coached and they made an adjustment to our press. When they countered what we were doing, we didn’t have something to give back, but we are working on that.”
SWC did not capitalize on the turnovers their defense created. Again the Jags missed wide-open shots and layups. Midway through the second half, the Jags found themselves sixteen points behind at 51-35.
The Jags were great at drawing fouls, but struggled at the free-throw line. With 4:08 left in the game, the SWC offense scored three three-point shots in a row, hyping up everyone on the Jags bench. The Jags were able to keep pace with IVC as both teams scored 38 points in the second half. Time ran out and the Jags lost, 64-59.
The Jags played smart, stayed out of foul trouble and were decent rebounders.
Cosentino said inexperience hurt the Jag’s chance of winning.
“Every single player on team is new, they’re almost all freshman,” he said. “IVC is an experienced team. They’re one of the better teams in the state, so I’m pleased we kept it close. I thought we could’ve done better. If we didn’t shoot at 52 percent from the free-throw line, it would’ve been different. You’re never going to win a game when you shoot 52 percent from the free-throw line, especially at home.”
Stone said the team performed admirably considering it was the first game of the season.
“We played well, we had good intensity,” he said. “But we needed to be better. We will do better in our next game now that we got all of our pregame jitters out. Coach always stresses to give 110 percent. Our team is a work in progress, considering most of our team is freshmen.”
Sims agreed with Stone that the team is a work in progress.
“This is our first year of everyone playing together as a team, this is definitely my first year playing with the team,” said Sims. “Once we have that chemistry, then we will be good.”
The Jags play a series of tournaments in Palomar Nov. 23–25, and in Grossmont from Nov. 30–Dec. 2. Their next home game is during the Cuyamaca/Southwestern tournament Dec. 8.
“We were playing 16 conference games (last year), and now we are playing fewer conference games,” said Cosentino. “That’s created more travel for us. The conference voted to have fewer conference games amongst each other so that they can increase their power ranking in the state tournament. I wasn’t for it, I wanted to play 16 conference games and play everyone twice. Because they’re all close to us, we wouldn’t be spending so much money. We are the furthest south, and all of the other schools are closer to LA and Orange County. It’s a one-year deal. We are driving back and forth every day, which is going to take its toll.”
With three away tournaments in the near future, Stone said the travelling would not affect the Jags on-court performance.
“Coach Cos has gotten us prepared physically for the long hard year of basketball,” he said. “Our condition and practices will be harder than any game we play this year, so physically we’ll be just fine. Mentally is the real question. 80 percent of basketball is from the neck up, and only 20 percent is physical. So if we play smart first, along with our athletic ability and skill, we’ll be where we want to be at the end of the three tournaments.”