City College men’s basketball lost its final game of the season to L.A. Pierce College on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Sports Pavilion.
Pierce (10-18) beat the Vaqueros in a foul-heavy match 96-87.
“The fouling kind of hurt us,” head coach Morris Hodges said.
City College cruised to an 8-3 advantage early in the first half but couldn’t get it back and Pierce steamrolled to a 27- 44 lead.
“Let’s go,” freshman Prince Arceneaux (No. 24) yelled after he scored despite being fouled. Arceneaux led the Vaqueros with 22 points and six rebounds.
The early power struggle was won and maintained by Pierce who established their dominance throughout the rest of the game.
“Coach said be smart, just stick to the game plan,” Arceneaux said. “I try to step up when I can and be a team player, pass the ball and just play defense.”
City College picked up the pace in the second half averaging a 61.1 shooting percentage to Pierces 58.3, but the score was too far out of reach.
“I wanted to be aggressive, but at first my shots weren’t really falling,” said sophomore Kenneth Edwards (No.15) who scored 14 points. “My mind-set was to get to the rim, so I definitely had to make a halftime adjustment.”
The Vaqueros stayed in the fight, but foul after foul gave Pierce numerous free throw attempts to take advantage of.
“What killed us were the rebound wars,” said Edwards. “Also slow starts are hard to come back from, but it was a good season and we competed, we just got to learn from it.”
The Vaqueros will lose four sophomores to four-year universities.
“We attacked the basket but couldn’t make our free throws,” said Moore. “We didn’t have weaknesses, they just over powered us. I’ll be returning and ready for next season.”
Although the season was tough the team’s sprit remained resilient.
“I thought the kids played hard. I thought our inability to win close games early in the season affected our confidence,” said Hodges. “The guys kept working hard and kept fighting through in spite of it.”
City College finished the season (1-23) with the sole victory coming against L.A. Valley College, 82-57, on Dec. 4.
