In their season-opener, the Cerritos College basketball team had their hands full with host Chaffey College on Wednesday. Although the Falcons received several good performances, they were defeated by the host Panthers, 97-77. The team will now open the Irvine Valley Tournament with a 5:00 p.m. game against College of the Canyons next Thursday.

Cerritos hurt themselves mostly with their 24 turnovers, while they were just 2-for-12 from three-point range. Chaffey started to pull away in the first half when the Falcons went nearly three full minutes without a basket, and received only a pair of free throws from sophomore Cameron McCoy (Taft HS) during that stretch. Sophomore guard Miles Ceballos (Crossroads HS/Ventura College) then converted a three-point play to get the Falcons to within 23-17 with 8:31 left in the first half.

Over the remainder of the first half, Cerritos was a respectable 6-for-11 from the field, but committed nine turnovers. That allowed the Panthers to extend their lead to 52-33 at intermission.

A three-point play from sophomore Taeo Thomas (Verbum Dei HS) with 13:40 left in the second half drew the Falcons to within 68-49, but ended up trailing by over 20 points for the rest of the game.

McCoy (16 points, 11 rebounds) and Ceballos (15 points, nine rebounds) led the Falcons on the night, while the duo of Thomas and sophomore Everett May (Los Alamitos HS) each added nine points and combined for nine rebounds.