Last updated on April 12, 2024
The Cabrillo Community College men’s basketball team flexed their full power during Saturday night’s playoff opener, deftly defeating The Fresno City College Rams on 97-79 on the home court. They move on to play San Francisco City College, fighting for a chance to eventually make it to state championships.
The Seahawks wasted no time after the opening tipoff, starting with an 8-0 run within the first three minutes, led by forward Solomon Tucker’s dunk and a pair of three pointers by guard Jalen Cunningham.
A hard full-court press by the Seahawks led to Fresno turnovers — Seahawks guard Darius Best had two early steals, which led to a technical foul by Rams guard James Prescott at 15:00.
The Seahawks continued to maintain their position in the driver’s seat, having a 54-40 lead by the 3:00 mark, until a late push Fresno kept the game within arms reach, ending halftime at 58-49, in favor of Cabrillo.
Best started the second half with a three-pointer to give momentum to the Seahawks, stretching the lead to 61-49.
This led to a defensive duel early into the second half, unlike the first half when teams were raining three-pointers from both sides. By the 15:00 mark, a turnover in the defensive zone by the Rams led to a collision between their starting guards, Milton Walker and James Prescott, who were absent for at least five minutes, and would cost them at a detrimental time.
Exchanging trash-talking and some back-and-forth defensive stops kept things close between the Seahawks and Rams. But after some glass-dominating putbacks and a couple of hard blocks by Seahawks Tucker fueled the teams’ energy, with Cabrillo steadily maintaining a 77-63 lead by the 9:45 mark.
The court seemed tilted in favor of Cabrillo for the remainder of the game, and after a third block by Tucker, the Seahawks cruised through to a 97-79 win to start the playoffs. It was a game where the Seahawks controlled the lead the whole time during Saturday night’s contest.
Tucker finished the game with 24 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks. Best contributed 18 points, five assists, five rebounds, three steals and a block. The Seahawks bench unit had some noticeable contributions as well, from Clarence Martin and Quentin Henry, with each of them scoring 11 points by the end of the game.
“It makes the game so much easier,” Tucker said in favor of the bench contributions, “being able to rely on them, (and) not having any scoring drop-offs.”
It was the first postseason win for many players on the Seahawks roster.
“It’s kind of cliche. It’s win or go home, and we (don’t) want to go home,” Tucker said. “We had a rough end our year, we are trying to get back to the start of our season with 100% confidence.”
That rough end was the 2-3 record Cabrillo had in their final five games, one of those losses being against Gilroy’s Gavilan College for the season finale, who just lost to San Francisco City College, Cabrillo’s next playoff opponent for Regional Finals.
The winner of Cabrillo at San Francisco on Saturday, March 9 at 7 p.m. will decide the fate of whichever college will continue onto the state championship.
