The men’s basketball team look onward to next season after getting eliminated in the second round of the playoffs against the College of the Redwoods Corsairs on Feb. 25.

The Hawks played a total of 30 games and finished with an overall record of 20-10 this season, according to the Cosumnes River College Hawks website.

They won 13 out of their 16 games against Big 8 Conference opponents and took home the conference title.

“I don’t necessarily like how we finished in the playoffs,” head coach Jonathan James said. “I feel like we should still be playing, but nonetheless, we were successful overall this season. I feel like we didn’t play our overall best at College of the Redwoods.”

James said he got to see the growth of the players not just as athletes, but also as young men and as students.

“We sit back and look at how they started in the summer and the first week of school to six-to-eight months later at the end of the season and they’ve come together as a team,” James said. “They’ve grown, maturity-wise as young men. So that’s always a pro.”

Sophomore wing Kaleb Drake said that despite how well the team did this season, there were some flaws as well.

“I think a lot of the time our focus was one of the cons this season,” Drake said. “We would play down to our competition instead of dominating how we should have been and I think that affected where we receded when we hit the playoffs.”

Freshman guard Kason Johnson said the team did well overall in a short amount of time for everyone to come together and go far.

“I think we did well overall, but the things that could have been better were if we had more time together, we would go pretty far,” Johnson said.

Freshman guard Shane Osby said the team didn’t work well together at the beginning, but as the season progressed, they built up chemistry and got the goal they wanted.

Osby said he plans to come back next season.

“I definitely see myself coming back next season, but right now I’m just taking a break,” Osby said. “We just had a long eight-month season.”

Sophomore guard Solo Evans said his goals were met this season, one of which was winning the Big 8 Conference as it was something he wanted to do in his two years at CRC. However, he said it’s possible he’ll continue playing basketball and will explore any possible opportunities in the future.

“I’m going to explore all opportunities, but I definitely want to continue playing basketball,” Evans said.