Daniel Cromar
The men’s basketball team lost a heartbreaker on Saturday, falling 75-71 to the Saddleback Gauchos (5-5) at Pierce College.
The Brahmas (2-7) came out slow in the first half, falling behind early on. The Gauchos continued to tack on points, and lead by as many as 12 points, taking advantage of Brahma turnovers and their inability to get many good shots off.
Pierce did manage to pick up the intensity a little, cutting the Gauchos’ lead to as little as four, but trailed by nine as the first half came to a close.
The second half started out better for the Brahmas. They began to slowly whittle away at the deficit, until freshman guard Justus Von Wright tied the game with a three pointer about halfway through the half.
The Gauchos could not be silenced, however, and almost immediately took back the lead, and eventually managed to put themselves up by six. The Brahmas continued to show resilience, and again began cutting into the deficit. With just under four minutes to play, sophomore guard Peter St. Hubert put the Brahmas on top 66-65.
The two teams battled back and forth, and it looked like the Brahmas might be able to take the lead again, but then head coach Ed Babayan was penalized with a technical foul for arguing a call in the last two minutes. The Gauchos held the lead after that and that was the way it ended.
“We were down one, they only made one free throw, and they got the ball and didn’t score,” said Brahmas assistant coach Brad Katz of the technical foul. “It was a momentum changer, but it didn’t lose us the game.”
Babayan saw it differently.
“They got points out of it, and they got the ball back,” he said. “It killed the momentum we had going into it. It broke the whole flow of the game when we had the flow going our way.”
Whatever the reason, the Brahmas are finding that they are having trouble holding on late in the game, and there are a few possible reasons for that.
“I think we set ourselves up,” said St. Hubert, who finished the game with 17 points. “If we came with the intensity that we did in the second half in the beginning of the game things would be a lot different.”
The coaching staff points to another possible factor.
“We’re young,” said Babayan. “We’re still making a lot of mental mistakes that are costing us wins. We’ve been doing that for the last three or four games.”
“We don’t know how to win the close games,” said Katz. “We’re young, and we don’t have that experience.”
Pierce guard Justus Von Wright (24) makes a layup against Saddleback College during their home game Saturday. Pierce lost 75-71. ()