Cosumnes River College’s men’s basketball team took down Mendocino College on Wednesday in the first round of the 3C2A Men’s Basketball Norcal Regionals 86-68.
Although the Hawks never trailed during the game and led by at least nine points the entire second half, the team had 25 turnovers which more than doubled Mendocino and was a season high for CRC.
“When it’s postseason it’s how you win,” said head coach Jonathan James. “I don’t like how we won tonight.”
The Hawks got in the scoring column first with a two from freshman wing Mason Marsh off an assist from sophomore point guard Devon Haynes. Marsh would have a personal season high and a team high of 26 points while shooting 65% from the field.
It was back and forth buckets for most of the first half until CRC started finding open shots which caused the lead to grow to as much as 17 points with about a minute left in the half.
Mendocino would finish the half with two buckets bringing the score to 43-31 going into the break.
“We started playing to our competition,” Haynes said. “In the second half we picked it up.”
The Hawks would start quickly with a 7-2 run in the first two minutes of the second half.
The next eight minutes of game time would be back and forth buckets with a slight edge by Mendocino that would bring the score to 64-55 with ten minutes left in the half. This was the closest the score would be for the rest of the game.
Marsh would strike a dagger into the Eagles with a steal into a coast to coast slam that brought the lead back to 13.
“I’m in the lanes and I’m trying to get on that rim,” Marsh said.
CRC wouldn’t take their foot off of the pedal as they continued scoring on effort plays the entire way.
With five minutes left freshman forward Jake Williams would grab his own miss and put it back up for a layup to bring the lead to 17.
“I made the decision in my head that if the shots aren’t falling I’m gonna go get rebounds,” Williams said.
The final buckets would be two free throws from Marsh with CRC in the double bonus bringing the game to its final score of 86-68.
CRC is set to face College of the Sequoias in the second round of the 3C2A Men’s Basketball Norcal Regionals on Saturday.