Corsairs make early exit from playoffs despite stellar season

The Corsairs snapped a 10 game winning streak and made an early exit from the playoffs on Saturday night with a 71-66 loss at home to the Los Angeles Harbor Seahawks despite winning the previous two meetings during the regular season.

SMC was led by guard trio, A.J Harris, Lee Larks, and Everett Brown who ran the run-and gun offense to some success against L.A. Harbor in the first half as both teams seemed to find the rim early.

Despite the Corsairs jumping out to an early lead, L.A harbor did not let the game get out of hand and kept pace with the SMC offense.

The Seahawks were stingy on the inside, which gave the Corsairs an advantage as they were able to get their 3-point shots off with ease.

Leading the way was guard Everett Brown who ended the first half with 12 points and was 4-of-10 from the field, but all 4 of his shots were crucial 3-pointers and.

Also scoring for the corsairs were A.J Harris, who had 7 points, and Lee Larks who scored 11 points all in the first half.

After a solid start, SMC seemed to fall flat by the second half, missing their last 6 shots and allowing the Seahawks to gather their composure.

The Seahawks were led by Kevin Dawson, who had 13 points, Dennis Hardwell with 6 points, and Sheldon Allen who contributed with 5 points.

They would go on a 7-0 run to go into halftime down only by 7. The Corsairs struggled at the end of the half as they would finish 7-of-21 from 3 point range as a team and 15-of-33 from the field overall.

They continued their shooting struggles out of the break and the Seahawks took advantage making a 5-0 run at the 15:00 minute mark.

Neither team could gain a clear advantage and the game would go down to the wire.

Corsairs Star player Deshawn Stephens finished 0-2 on the night after having fouled out with 4:30 remaining. 

Leading the way for the Seahawks down the stretch was Marlin Ramos who hit 2 back-to-back clutch 3-point shots to give the Seahawks the lead with 3:00 minutes to go.

The corsairs would respond with some clutch 3-pointers of their own by Matt Sinclair and Everett Brown to tie the game up at 64, they would both finish the game in double figures.

However, Ramos would again make some clutch 3-point shots to put the Seahawks up by 5; he would finish the game as the Seahawks leading scorer with 23 points.

"The coach told us we were giving them way too many 3's, and leaving them wide open," said Ramos after the game. " I just made all the 3-pointers that I could".

LA Harbor sealed the game on free throws when the Seahawk's Dawson made both his attempts to give L.A Harbor a 71-66 victory over SMC.

After the game, a disappointed coach Jenkins felt the team had panicked down the stretch and took some ill-advised shots but was proud of the teams accomplishments.

"We had a great season," said Jenkins.