Trailing by 17 in the second half, the Mustangs comeback attempt came up short against Skyline College as the Los Medanos College men’s basketball team lost their home opener 78-70 Nov. 10.
“Our guys didn’t fold, they didn’t give up,” Mustangs head coach Derek Domenichelli said. He added, “They showed a lot of character and pride to come back down 17 to make it a tight game.”
LMC had to play from behind for the majority of the game and never held a lead outside of the opening three minutes. While they managed to tie the score at 70 with a minute to play, the comeback ran out of steam and the Mustangs’ home opener was spoiled.
Turnovers and missed shots plagued the Mustangs late in the first half and were a big part of the team trailing 35-28 into the halftime break and having to play a majority of the game from behind.
“We just didn’t take care of the ball,” Domenichelli said on the team’s turnover problem in the first half against Skyline College. He added that the team hadn’t had a turnover problem in any of their first three games to start the season but was happy his team was able to clean up their play in the second half.
“I was very proud of their effort,” Domenichelli said. “We took care of the ball better, we took better shots in the second half.”
Into the second half, the Mustang’s woes continued. The Skyline Trojans opened with a 12-5 run to lead 47-33 with 15 minutes to play in regulation. As the half continued, the Mustang offense began to make shots to get in a rhythm. However, they were unable to string together stops on defense. After 10 minutes of play, LMC had cut into the Trojan lead by just one point with five minutes remaining in regulation.
Over the next four minutes, the Mustangs outscored the Trojans 16-3 to tie the game at 70 with a minute remaining in regulation. Guards AJ Dungo and Devin Carson helped fuel the fire for the Mustangs’ comeback attempt. Dungo led the team in scoring with 19 points and Carson tallied a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
However, LMC’s comeback would run out of gas. They surrendered eight unanswered points and dropped their home opener by a final score of 78-70.
“The ball bounces one way or another, we could have easily snuck that win out,” Domenichelli said.
After a tournament at Mendocino College, the Mustangs will travel to Pleasant Hill to battle Diablo Valley College the night of Nov. 28 with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m.
