Coming from Behind
Lucas Weiss | Staff Writer
Men’s basketball beats Compton in a fast-paced shootout.
On Nov. 7 at Corsair Gym, the SMC Corsairs men’s basketball team played the Compton College Tartars, winning 94-86.
Both teams started off shooting, hitting multiple threes early. However, the Tartars seemed almost unstoppable, hitting multiple deep threes and forcing SMC to call three timeouts in the first 7 minutes.
After the third timeout, SMC was down 21-31. Finally, they started playing good defense and the amount of made threes decreased drastically. The Corsairs consistently got the lead down to around 7 points, but the Tartars always came back with a layup or three. With a few minutes left, SMC started getting more steals on defense and narrowed the lead down to one point at the end of the half.
Coming out of the gates, Compton got hot once again, and quickly went up 10. But, seemingly at the flip of a switch, SMC turned up the heat, playing great defense and coming up with steals that led to fast break opportunities. Forward Mike Hill stood out in particular, coming up with three in the game. Guard Jahveon Medearis stood out on the offensive end, getting multiple transition opportunities.
Eventually, both teams ended up tied at 65, and from there it was neck-and-neck the whole way through. The most notable highlight of the game came when, down 71-72, forward Jason Hilliard caught a lob on a fast break and threw it down to put the Corsairs up one.
Neither team was able to create much separation until the last two minutes, when Medearis hit two threes in a row to put SMC up 94-86, effectively ending the game.
When asked about his clutch threes, Medearis said, “I was thinking, ’Just shoot it,’ even though I missed a couple in the first half. My teammates are giving me confidence.” He spoke about his fast break opportunities as well. “I try to do that in most games, you know, try to push the tempo. Try to get my teammates involved as much as I can and just push it each game to get our momentum going,” he said.
Head Coach Joshua Thomas was critical of the team after the game, despite the win. When asked about any adjustments the team made on defense, he said, “I don’t think we made that many adjustments. I think we didn’t have a really good mental focus in the game. We had a game plan. We didn’t run it really well.”
He also went in depth on the team’s thoughts coming into the game and said, “I think we overlooked the opponent. Our first two games were against teams that were ranked in the state, we’re ranked in the state. And I think the… players just overlooked the opponent, thinking, ‘Oh, we’re just gonna come in here and just win’.”
Fortunately, the Corsairs got it together in the end to win their second game of the season. They are now 2-1 on the year.
