The MSJC men's basketball team suffered a couple of tough losses to ranked teams last week when they played in the Hypland Classic at Riverside City College.
Wednesday the Eagles fell behind 48-39 by halftime and could not recover as they fell to East Los Angeles 91-77. Elijah Edwards kept MSJC in it with a game high 28 points 17 of those came in the first half. Kameron Manning-Fuimaono added 15 and Gary Dotson scored 13. Adrian Mosley also reached double figures with 10. ELAC outrebounded the Eagles 40-27 in the game and forced MSJC into 26 turnovers.
Thursday MSJC came out strong and held a 36-30 lead over RCC at halftime but could not hold on as they eventually lost the game 79-74. The Eagles held a 62-54 lead with 9:30 left in the game but the Tigers went on a 15-0 run and MSJC did not score again until Azmar Sabb made a pair of free throws with 2:40 to play. The Eagles kept it close the rest of the way and got back to within two with 25 seconds left but the Tigers made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to preserve the victory. RJ Dawson scored a team high 12 points all in the second half for MSJC while both James Freeman IV and Edwards had 11 each. Sabb finished with 10 points and Armani Battiste had a team best 9 rebounds.
The Eagles now 3-6 on the season will play two games this week. Wednesday MSJC travels to San Diego Mesa for a 6 pm game and Saturday the Eagles will host Saddleback at 3 pm.