BAKERSFIELD, CA- The Bakersfield College men's basketball team hosted their first conference match up against the Santa Monica Cosairs. Despite having an assistant coach and five players out with covid, the Renegades found a way to stay afloat and come out with a conference win, 78-74.
The Renegades struggled finding the net for the first 10 minutes of the half. At one point BC was down 5-13. A timeout was exactly what Bakersfield needed to change up their game while Cosairs stayed still, by going on a 14-4 run and taking the lead for the first time in the first half. Even though Santa Monica loss their lead, the Cosairs were not going to back down and kept the Gades to a two-possession game for the rest of the half besides the short 6-point lead BC had. The half ended with BC keeping their lead, 34-32.
Into the second half and the game would continue to stay neck and neck. Bakersfield continued to hold on to their lead until halfway through the half. Both teams took turns taking back their leads but not leading by more than three points at a time. With three minutes left in the game BC reclaimed their lead and controlled it. The final 45 seconds had both teams on their toes as Santa Monica inched away at BC's margin only being down by one point, fortunately for the Renegades the Cosairs would draw not one, not two but three fouls and Renegade would take the game 78-74.
Ending the night as the top scorer in the game was Joshua Lewis with 21 points, followed by sophomore Tyrell Coleman with 16 points, 13 assists and 8 rebounds. BC's bench helped the Renegades score 39-11 and 17-2 off second chances.
With the win, the Renegades improve to 9-4 on the season and remain undefeated at home. Bakersfield will head out for the road taking on Citrus on Saturday, Jan. 8th at 3:00pm.
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