Vanessa Sahawi
The Pierce Men’s Basketball team lost to the Pasadena City College Lancers 71-61, during the opening game at PCC Monday night.
Last season, the Brahmas made history by making it to the Western State Conference (WSC) playoffs. Lead by head coach Ed Babayan, the team hadn’t been since 1983.
Although the Brahmas lost to San Bernardino Valley, it showed how far the team had come. Returning players from last seasons team include Jeremy White (sophomore) , Ryan Rubino (sophomore) and Tarrance Taylor (sophomore), according to the Pierce Website.
“This years goal is to finish above 500, go to win conference playoffs,” said head coach Babayan, before the game.
During the first half of the game the Brahmas came out charging, leading the Lancers 38-35.
In the first half, Jeremy White and Nathanial Boykin stood out, helping the Brahmas to a early lead. But Lancers forward Sean Hampton (sophomore) and forward Marcus Harvey (sophomore) were not taking it easy in allowing these two players to shoot.
“I feel pretty good but I felt that I could have done better. There’s a lot of shots I could have made but it’s the first game. It was some of guys first game in college and we didn’t really rebound as well or communicate well, we had a lot of turnovers that hurt,” said Jeremy White, after the game.
The second half made a huge overturn when Lancer’s Sean Hampton took the game by storm and left the Brahmas momentum in the dust with a score of 71-61.
Lancers started off the game by making 4 consecutive shots in a row, by creating turnovers, assists and foul shots and this became a warning sign for coach Babayan and Pierce’s second timeout was needed.
This break must of worked because Brahmas guard Pat Abbott steals the ball and throws it to forward Rashaad William who makes a slam dunk.
This shot lifted momentum of the players and in support players on the bench began chanting “defense!.”
After that shot being made Lancers pulled out to a 10 point lead due to the Brahmas lack of defense which caused many turnovers from sloppy passing.
“Disappointment.. I’m disappointed. That was not the kind of effort or intensity that is expected of our program. They played harder than we did,” said Babayan, after the game.
The Brahmas were left with disappointing feelings but on the opposing side, the Lancers were happy to have won their first game.
“Always good to get a win, but we are missing 4 players and we made up for it during the 2nd half,” Lancers head coach Mike Swanegan said. “We didn’t play our best but we can take a win either way we can get.”
Some of the Lancer’s players shared their coach’s view.
“We played hard, we were shaky in the 1st half and picked it up in the 2nd on defense and we did what coach needed us to do which was to win,” said Hampton, who led all scorers with 27 points.
Next game for the Brahmas is scheduled to be taking place in San Diego on November 12-14.
“Work harder, and definitely going to pick in practice. They’re going to understand what it takes to play the right way for Pierce College,” said Babayan. “We’ll straighten it out by the time we get to San Diego.”