The Cerro Coso men's basketball team entered their home court on Wednesday night with a season long goal of pursing the playoffs in focus. But in order to do so, they would need to go through conference rival, San Bernardino Valley College. SBVC came into the Cerro Coso Gym as the #1 team in the IEAC and ranked #8 in the CCCAA coaches poll with a record of 9-2/17-4. The Coyotes had much to prove to continue controlling their own destiny, and coming off of a tough Chaffey loss earlier this week, Coso came into the game with a chip on their shoulder.
From the very tipoff, Cerro Coso controlled the tempo and won in the "little parts" of the game. Josh Miller (21 pts) won the tip and from there the Coyotes would roll on to a big 96-87 win over the Wolverines. Cerro Coso's high energy performance was lead by the hard nosed play of Kyren Gardner (17 pts) who really stepped up for his teammates Wednesday night by fighting for rebounds, playing strong on defense, and attacking the basket to keep the Coyotes on pace. Nathaniel Jackson also proved to be a key to the victory as he helped to keep a stingy SBVC defense out of rhythm with some shifty ball movement and cashing in on 20 points.
Although the win is a nice notch in the belt for the Coyote season, the hunt for the playoffs is far from over with the IEAC standings currently sits with four teams in contention:
- SBVC 9-2
- Cerro Coso 8-3
- MSJC 8-3
- Copper Mountain 8-3
Witht he win, Cerro Coso moves to 17-5 overall and 8-3 in conference and will travel to Palo Verde to face this weekend and face the pesky Pirates. Cerro Coso returns home next weekend for their final home series when they face College of Desert on February 19 and 20.
