The Cerritos College men's basketball team, seeded #8, defeated #1-seeded Antelope Valley College, 77-75 on Wednesday to advance to the 4th Round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs. With the win, the Falcons (19-10) will travel to Chaffey College, the #4-seeded team on Saturday for a 7:00 p.m. game. The Panthers moved on with their 79-71 win over Pasadena City College. With one more win, Cerritos will qualify for the CCCAA State Championships, which will be held at The Aviary.

The win advances the Falcons to the State Final Eight for the first time since the 2001-02 season when the state tournament was eight teams. This year will mark the fourth year in a row the CCCAA has gone to a four-team state tournament, with two teams from Northern California and two from Southern California competing.

Trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half (32-20), the Falcons slowly worked their way back in the game and were behind only 35-33 at intermission. During their run to get to within two points by halftime, the Falcons received six points from sophomore forward TJ Traylor (Dominguez HS). Swarming defense and timely shooting put the team up, 64-56 with 7:38 left in the second half, which included consecutive three-pointers from sophomores Jordan Reise (Huntington Beach HS) and Kevin Conrad (Buena Park HS). But the Marauders (27-5) went on a 13-1 run to open up a 69-65 advantage with 2:24 left in the second half. Antelope Valley received a three-pointer from Ismael Ali to break a 65-65 tie.

But Cerritos received great bench support from freshman forward Josh Bell (Long Beach Wilson HS) and Conrad. In the second half, Conrad, who played 23 minutes, scored 12 of his 13 points, which included going 5-for-5 from the free throw line. His three-point play with 8:26 was a key play which helped the team open a six-point lead. As for Bell, he played aggressive defense in his 16 minutes, and added consecutive baskets to turn a one-point deficit into a 71-68 lead with 2:41 left. His second basket came on a rebound of his missed free throw and follow up layup.

Sophomore Jarion Henry (Kimball, TX HS/Trinity Valley, TX CC) backed his way inside and scored with 17.4 seconds left for a 77-73 lead, which ultimately secured the victory. Antelope Valley responded with a basket and after freshman Micah Winn (Crenshaw HS) missed a pair of free throws, the Marauders had one last chance to send the game into overtime. But Ali missed on his outside jumper and Bell pulled down the rebound that keeps Cerritos alive in the playoffs.

Henry led all scorers with 21 points, while sophomore guard Victor Jones (Lakewood HS) contributed 15 points to go along with 13 points for Conrad. Traylor and Reise each added nine points, with Reise providing his points off the bench.

FALCON FOOTNOTES: The win over Antelope Valley avenged a season-ending playoff loss from last season and marked only the second win against the Marauders in school history. AVC also beat Cerritos in the 2004 playoffs. It also snapped a 12-game home playoff winning streak for AVC and 10-game home winning streak this season. The meeting against Chaffey (26-5) will pit the #1 and #2 pre-season ranked teams in the state. Cerritos leads the overall series against the Panthers, 8-3 and this will be the first game between the teams since the 2010-11 season. Back in 1995-96, Chaffey defeated the Falcons, 89-73 in the second round of the playoffs, which marks their only post-season meeting.