3C2A Men's Basketball Quarterfinal #4: Fullerton turns back Cabrillo challenge to advance to semifinals
Men's Basketball Tournament Central
WALNUT - A stingy No. 4 North seed Cabrillo College gave the defending state champions all they could handle for much of the game until the South No. 1 seed Fullerton CollegeHornets pulled away late for a 78-67 3C2A Men's Basketball Quarterfinal win in the final game of the day at Mt. San Antonio College on Friday night.
With the win, the Hornets will face College of the Sequoias, which was a 73-69 winner over West L.A. earlier on Friday.
With a seven-point, 64-57, lead and under four minutes to play, the Hornets all but put a bow on the win with two 3-pointers in under a minute to open up a 72-59 advantage.
The exclamation point was made when freshman guard Christian Watson had a slam dunk with eight seconds left.
“We knew it was going to be a hard game and hats off to (Cabrillo), they played an outstanding game,” said Watson, who is a CCCMBCA first-team selection and scored a game-high 20 points. “We came out here to win and take it one game at a time.
“It felt so good with the slam at the end too.”
With the win, Fullerton improved to 27-4 and will keep alive the chance to win a fifth state title. Fullerton is currently tied with Riverside City and Cerritos with four titles.
“(Cabrillo) went on the road last week and won at San Francisco City (College) in the regional final and you don’t do that if you’re not a good team and a tough team,” said Fullerton coach Perry Webster, who was the CCCMBCA South Coach of the Year. “We knew it was going to be a battle and we fought our way to it and got the ‘W’”.
Also scoring for Fullerton was another Hornet CCCMBCA first-team selection, Jeremiah Davis with 18 points. RJ Banks added another 12 points for the Hornets.
Cabrillo (25-6) pressured the Hornets early in the second half, but a Hornet 8-2 run in the first seven minutes seemed to put the Seahawks back on their heels until they came within four points with 7:44 left on two free throws by Best (18 points).
That was the closest the Seahawks would get for the remainder of the game.
Fullerton, the defending 3C2A champion and winners of two of the last three titles, had all it could handle in the first half, as Cabrillo held a one-point, 30-29 lead.
The Seahawks had six players in the scoring column with sophomore guard Amare Ames leading with eight points. Quinton Henry and Darius Best added six points each.
Fullerton was led by Watson with nine points while Strong had eight.
The Hornets took an early 13-6 lead and looked like they were going to add more until Cabrillo went on a 12-4 run to take an 18-17 lead on a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Clarence Martin, Jr.
The remainder of the half was a back-and-forth affair but Fullerton gathered itself and went on a small, 5-2 run to eventually retake the lead, 24-22.
“I don’t think we really got into our flow until the second half,” said Webster of the slow start. “That can happen in games like this in a big game and the biggest thing is to stay in character and I thought we got out of character. But we came back and played back (the way) we’re capable of in the second half.”
Quinton Henry and CCCMBCA first-team selection Soloman Tucker scored 13 and 11 points, respectively, for Cabrillo.
(Release by John Sherrard, for the 3C2A)
