The Cosumnes River College men’s basketball team beat Santa Rosa Junior College 69-66 on Friday during their 19th game of the season.
The Hawks are looking forward to starting this month with back-to-back wins after finishing the month of January with a 1-3 record. With this win, the team has a record of 11-8.
Head Coach Jonathan James spoke about his team’s defensive game strategy going into the game against Santa Rosa.
“It’s guarding the three-point line, running guys off the line, keeping the ball in front of you on drives and rebounding the ball, so if we’re able to do those things when we should be fine,” James said.
With the team scoring an average of 78 points per game, James said that the players have done a solid job scoring on their end. They just need to prevent the other team from doing that.
“We do a solid job of scoring, it’s just stopping the other team and to win the game,” James said.
Freshman guard Jordan Burciaga said he likes his team’s chances going into the game.
“I think we’re evenly matched, because the last time we played we didn’t have our whole roster there,” Burciaga said.
Burciaga spoke about what he and his teammates expect to do during the game.
”We mainly have to work on our defense,” Burciaga said. “The last few games, we’ve been giving up a bunch of easy scoring opportunities and we have to be on the same page.”
The close game came down to the final shot. With some very good free-throw shooting from Sophomore guard Andre Huddleston, the Hawks were able to win.
They were trailing by 10 points early in the second half, but they were able to make enough plays to make a comeback and win. One of those plays was a 3-pointer made by Freshmen guard Ja’rod Webb, who was fouled on the play as well.
Freshman guard Patrick Parkes Jr. explained what Coach James said to the team at halftime.
“He was fixing minor issues with our offense and our focus on defense is what made them more disheartened,” Parkes said. “We started closing in on everything we did wrong in the first half and built upon that.”
The defense of the Hawks was able to hold Santa Rosa to 36.8% on the field, 27.2% from the three-point line and 72.7% from the free throw line.
Parkes said this win is much needed going into their next game against Sacramento City College.
“This is exactly what we needed, I’m definitely sure that we are going to be unstoppable, because we have the momentum right now and you can feel the amount of energy in the locker room,” Parkes said.
The Hawks’ next game takes place against Sacramento City College at SCC on Feb. 7.