By John M. Sherrard
(Walnut, CA) After a tough double overtime loss on Tuesday, the Mt. SAC Men's Basketball team bounced back with an 82-74 nonconference win over visiting College of the Desert College, on Thursday. With only two games remaining before South Coast Conference play begins in late January, the Mounties improved to 9-6 overall.
The Mounties held a slim two-point lead, 74-72, but pulled away with 1:07 remaining in the game when sophomore guard A.J. McLaurin (12 pts.) drained a crucial 3-point basket, followed by four consecutive free throws by sophomore guard Nick Brown.
"I feel like our momentum is going to swing now," McLaurin said. "This is the one we needed and we came out and played hard." McLaurin knew how important the 3-pointer was in the game for the Mounties. "Being that was a big moment in the game, it was expected of me and I live for that," said McLaurin of his long-range basket.
Mt. SAC head coach Clark Maloney echoed McLaurin's comments about the basket being a big shot.
"He's expected to do that," Maloney said. "I like the fact that he's taking the position to step up and he's all about the work and his job to do.
"We feel like we have a number of guys that can score and when we get four or five guys scoring in double figures we feel pretty good about what we're doing."
Mt. SAC outscored the Roadrunners 8-2 down the closing stretch for the win.
Mounties sophomore guard Ryon O'Quinn led all scorers with 16 points, followed by 15 from Brown. Also scoring for the Mounties was freshman guard Josh Johnson with nine points. Although guard Charlie Evans IV did not get into the scoring column on Thursday, the sophomore was valuable for the Mounties.
"When Chuck's not shooting well he's a very good defender, a good passer and the intangibles that most people don't pay attention to," Maloney added.
COD jumped out to a 10-5 lead with four minutes gone in the opening half, but the Mounties took their first lead with 6:57 left in the half on a layup by O'Quinn.
Mt. SAC never trailed again as they built up a ten-point halftime lead, 44-34.
The Roadrunners (1-9) hung around throughout the second half, never trailing by more than nine points.
With 6:20 remaining in the game they crawled to within two points, 63-61, but that was the closest they would get the remainder of the game.
Mt. SAC sophomore F/C Damarcus Carter (4 pts.) scored a layup and a free throw to give them a six-point lead, 67-61, with 5:14 left.
After McLaurin hit the big three-pointer for the Mounties, Brown was fouled on consecutive possessions and knocked down both free throws twice, for an 80-74 lead with 21 seconds remaining in the contest.
Three players scored six points each for the Mounties – freshman guard Corey Grant, sophomore guard Jason Jamie and freshman forward Nikita Ussenov.
The Mounties close out 2016 with their final home game against Fullerton College on Monday, December 19th. Game time is 6:00pm.
The final nonconference game is Friday, January 6 at San Bernardino College.
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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630.