With three of their players accounting for 66 points, Los Angeles Trade-Tech College had too much firepower on Wednesday night and handed Cerritos a 93-78 South Coast Conference crossover loss. The Falcons (13-4), who have dropped two of their last three games, will host Pasadena City College at 6:00 p.m. on Friday in their final crossover game.
The loss overshadowed the performance of freshman Chance Hunter (Inglewood HS), who recorded a season-high 27 points and 13 rebounds. Take away his 9-for-13 shooting performance and the Falcons were only 19-for-56 (34%) from the field. Where Hunter was the main focus for Cerritos, the Beavers (13-3) used the three-headed monster of Erickson Gonzalez-De Leon (24 points, 9-of-10 FG), Tyler Jelks (22 points, 11-of-14 FT) and Fredelin Dela Cruz (20 points, 15 rebounds), who accounted for 71% of their scoring.
A pair of Hunter free throws with 15:06 left in the first half gave the Falcons a 12-11 lead. But once the Beavers Brian Simmons hit a three-pointer to break a 12-12 tie, Cerritos would trail the rest of the game. Over a span of five minutes, sophomore Tawon Elston (Roosevelt HS) accounted for all five of the Falcons points, while LA Trade-Tech extended their lead by six points, 33-23.
Down 46-29 at halftime, the Falcons battled back to within six points after a 9-3 run and trailed 54-48 with 15:34 on the clock after a Christian Alvis-Labadie (Whittier Christian HS) layup. Three Jelks free throws put the deficit back to 12 points, 66-54, while Cerritos would go on to trial by as many as 20 points with less than 10 minutes on the clock.
Sophomore Cody Wilkes (La Mirada HS) added 12 points on the night, with sophomore Jamal Heckard (Carson HS/El Camino College) checking in with eight points, eight rebounds and six assists. Elston finished with seven points off the bench, with sophomore Dezmon Murphy (La Mirada HS) contributing nine points.