A special night ended in victory as the men’s basketball team snapped a two-game losing streak.
The Brahmas managed to hold off the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros in a 91-86 win.
Five players celebrated their Sophomore Night. They were guards E.J. Bushner, Zion White, Kyle Lord, Dylan Hicks, and wing Don McCrary.
Bushner, with 31 points, and McCrary, with 20, led in scoring.
Brahmas head coach Charles White was pleased, in particular with Bushner’s season-high performance.
“He did what he was supposed to do on Sophomore Night,” White said. “I’ve been looking for him to do that all year long.”
In the first half, it was fairly close until near the end when the Brahmas went on a run and ended the half with a 14 point lead.
Santa Barbara got into foul trouble and Brahmas took advantage.
“We started going to the basket instead of taking all jumpers like we normally do,” Charles White said.
Bushner went off with 21 points at the half and hit a buzzer-beater to end the half.
In the second half, the Brahmas started off sluggish, giving the Vaqueros a chance to chip into the lead.
Because of early foul trouble, Santa Barbara was able to go on a 16-8 run.
Luckily though Brahmas got back on track and went on their own run.
During the second half, guard Hector Page and Santa Barbara’s Forward Tommy Condon got into an altercation.
Condon grabbed Page by the neck and started a little squabble. Which resulted in a technical foul on Condon.
Page said he overreacted a little bit.
“It’s a player’s instinct like I can’t control that it was all bad,” Page said.
Yet again many careless turnovers and poor shot attempts got Santa Barbara into the game.
Charles White showed his frustration by yanking his mask off his face.
Despite getting into foul trouble and Santa Barbara getting close to completing the comeback, the Brahmas maintained the lead and were able to secure the win.
The Brahmas have had trouble maintaining leads all season but didn’t today.
“Getting the ball to the right people at the right time,” Charles White said. “That’s one of the things that’s been hurting us all year we let teams back in.”
Bushner later commented on his performance. He said that he took what the defense gave him.
“I just knew we were going to have to play hard,” Bushner said. “It felt good coming off my fingertips.”
Zion White said that Bushner played great.
“He was locked in, I can tell by his face,” White said. “These are our last games so we’re giving it all we got.”
Bushner said he wants to finish out the season strong.
“I just want to make sure we finish out strong and our sophomores do their job so we can go on to a university,” Bushner said.
With the win, Pierce moved up to 12-14 and will hit the road to Allan Hancock College this Friday at 5 p.m.