Bobcats finish with win at Grossmont

The Saddleback men's basketball team finished the Grossmont College Tournament with an 85-67 win against the host school on Sunday in El Cajon.  The Bobcats trailed early but raced past the Griffins for their fifth win of the season.

Saddleback had a pair of setbacks to start the tournament with narrow losses against Palomar (58-62) and Los Angeles Trade Tech (64-66), so the team was looking to respond in the final game of the tournament on Sunday.  The Bobcats did just that, posting an 18-point win to get within one game of .500 for the year.

Saddleback fell behind to start when Grossmont opened up a 9-4 lead in the first three minutes of the game.  The Bobcats quickly responded with a 7-0 run to take the lead.  Xerian Anderson started the run with a three-pointer.

The game was tied at 11-11 when Saddleback grabbed the lead for good with a pair of made free throws from Nikolas Grguric.  The freshman from Dana Hills would later make a layup with 6:50 in the half as Saddleback had its first double-digit lead of the game (34-24).  The lead would expand to 17 in the opening half after Anderson made a three-point play and Grguric rattled home a jumper for a 41-24 advantage.  T.J. Tittelfitz followed with a layup and the Bobcats had a 43-24 lead with just over 2.5 minutes remaining.  In total, Saddleback's defense held Grossmont scoreless for more than five minutes while scoring 11 straight points in taking control of the game.

Saddleback had a 14-point lead at the intermission, holding a 22-16 advantage in rebounds while making 7-of-8 free throws.  The two squads traded points for most of the second half, as Grossmont never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.  Anderson scored 12 points over the final 20 minutes while David Mitchell scored 10.  The duo both finished with a team-high 20 points for the game.  Saddleback finished with a 41-31 advantage on the glass, with Tittelfitz leading the way with eight rebounds while scoring 15 points of his own. 

Saddleback is now 5-6 for the season.  The Bobcats will play next at Mt. San Jacinto College on Saturday at 3:00 PM before opening Orange Empire Conference play next Wednesday against Orange Coast College.