CHARGED UP FOR CYPRESS

No. 11 Fullerton traveled down the street to No. 19 Cypress College for a Friday night OEC matchup and knocked off the Chargers 62-47.

It was a big contest that broke up a three-way tie for first place in the Orange Empire Conference with Cypress, Fullerton, and Santiago Canyon all sharing a 5-1 record prior to tonight's games. The FC (17-2 overall) victory puts the team at 6-1 in the OEC and is still tied with the Hawks of Santiago Canyon (16-4 overall), who got past Riverside City College tonight 66-55. Cypress is now 5-2 in the OEC and 15-5 overall.

The Hornets scored the first bucket of the game and then jump ahead 17-9 in the first five minutes. As time ran off the clock for the first half, Shawn Woodson knocked down a deep three pointer giving his team a healthy lead of 31-20.

There was no lead changes as Fullerton ran the floor the entire game grabbing a 48-28 lead by 9:58 of the second half that was highlighted by Brayden Smith's dunk. The Hornets extended their lead to 58-36 with just over 3 minutes left in regulation that was capped off by another dunk by Smith.

Fullerton out-shot the Chargers 44.7% to 30.8% and out-rebounded them 32-24. 

Joe Grahovac led the way with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists, while Brayden Smith followed up with 10 points and 3 rebounds. Jaqari Miles scored 9 points, and JQ Strong delivered 8 points, had 5 rebounds, 2 assists, with 2 blocks.  

Up Next: The No. 11 Hornets (17-2 overall, 6-1 OEC) will stay out on the road next week for two games. On Wednesday January 22nd, FC heads to No. 29 Irvine Valley College for game two of the conference series at 6:00 pm. Then, on Friday January 24 at 7:00 pm, Fullerton travels to Santa Ana College for the second game of the season against the Dons.

*Photo by Matt Brown