Eagles Lose Two at RCC Tourney

Elijah Edwards had 18 and 11 points in two games at the Hypland Classic in Riverside last week, but the Eagles lost two tough games. (Jerry Lee Palad-MSJC)
Elijah Edwards had 18 and 11 points in two games at the Hypland Classic in Riverside last week, but the Eagles lost two tough games. (Jerry Lee Palad-MSJC)

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.