In their first tournament of the season, the Cerritos College men's basketball team captured the championship of the 26th Annual Irvine Valley Classic. The Falcons (3-0) opened with a 72-68 win over Ventura College and followed that by defeating the host Lasers (2-1) in the championship game, 69-53. Cerritos will now host Citrus College at 6:00 p.m. next Wednesday.

Cerritos vs. Ventura: Taking on the Pirates, the Falcons opened a 51-42 second half lead, only to see the Pirates pull to within 51-49 after a 7-0 run. Ventura pulled ahead, 55-54 with 6:50 remaining in the second half until a layup by freshman Cameron McCoy (Taft HS), while freshman Gary Williams (Dominguez HS) converted a pair of free throws to put Cerritos in front, 58-55. With the game knotted at 61-61, freshman Everett May (Los Alamitos HS) drained a three-pointer, while Williams followed with a pair of his own to put the Falcons up, 70-63 with 2:05 left. Sophomore Jonathan Salazar (St. John Bosco HS/New Mexico Military CC) pulled down a rebound, drove the length of the court and scored on a layup to make it a 72-66 game with :49 seconds remaining. Although the Pirates would respond with a bucket, they failed to add any more to their total, making that the final score. May led the team with 20 points, which included a trio of three-pointers, with Salazar adding 11 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Sophomore guard Gorden Boykins (St. Anthony HS) scored all 13 of his points in the first half, with Williams adding 12 points and three rebounds off the bench. Sophomore Jalen Shores (Lakewood HS) dished out seven assists to go with his six points, while McCoy produced nine points in the win.

Cerritos vs. Irvine Valley: Struggling to find their shot in the first half, the Falcons turned things around in the final 20 minutes, as they converted 46% of their shots, which included going 6-for-13 from three-point range. Down 30-27 at halftime, May opened the second half with a three-point play to tie the game, and were then forced to battle back from a five-point deficit (39-34) later in the half. McCoy converted his own three-point play with 11:58 remaining, while a Shores three-pointer drew the team to within 41-40. Cerritos took a brief 42-41 lead on a McCoy layup on the team's next possession and held the Lasers scoreless for 3:14 during a 9-0 run. Three treys from sophomore Justin Stephens (Gahr HS), along with another three-pointer from Shores allowed the Falcons to open up a 65-50 lead over a 2:55 period and never looked back in the win. Stephens finished the game 4-for-5 from three-point range and joined Shores, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, with the team lead in points with 16. McCoy added 11 points and eight rebounds, with All-Tournament selection May chipping in with 10 points.