The Los Medanos College Men’s basketball team picked up an important 78-64 home victory against Mendocino College Friday, Jan. 26. 

The win puts the Mustangs ahead of the Eagles in the Bay Valley Conference in the midst of a tight playoff race between Los Medanos, Mendocino and Yuba College. 

“It’s a big win,” Mustangs head coach Derek Domenichelli said. “Tonight was a big win for us because they beat us up there and now we beat them here so it moves us in second place all alone.”

Outside of the game’s opening minutes, the Mustangs led the Eagles the entire game. They led Mendocino by 18 at the halftime break and held the Eagles to just 27 first half points. 

“Defensively, it was one of our better games,” Domenichelli said. “We held a really good offensive team that averages points in the 80s to stick in the 60s. We rebounded and guarded well, to win by 14 I was pretty proud of my guys.” 

Freshman JJ Robertson scored a team-high 28 points with sophomore Ramon Bailey following closely behind with 24. Both players recorded double-doubles while sophomore Devin Carson and Bailey both had a team-high 12 rebounds. 

The Los Medanos 18-point second-half lead quickly fell to 10 thanks to an 11-3 run out of the halftime gates by the Eagles. However the Mustangs were able to quickly recover and extend their lead back up to 15. 

“I think our guys did a great job in recovering,” Domenichelli said. “A lot of teams might have kind of panicked and made it into a game, but we got a timeout and our guys regrouped. I think we have high-character guys that kind of weathered the storm. Once we got back into our rhythm we got some really good looks at the bucket and we got the lead back up to 15 where it should’ve been.”

The Eagles early second-half run comes in large part to the team switching to a full-court press style of defense. Domenichelli said there was some adjusting the team had to do to counteract the Eagles defensive change.  

“I think we were too relaxed with the ball,” Domenichelli said. “I think having a big lead sometimes guys play a little too relaxed. Once we called timeout and said ‘we got to be stronger with the ball’ and realized this was going to be a game then we were okay.”

Mendocino managed to cut the Mustangs lead to nine several times throughout the second-half, but never further from that. 

With the victory over Mendocino the Mustangs now sit alone in second place in the Bay Valley Conference. Los Medanos can pull within one game of the Conference leaders with a win against Yuba Friday, Feb. 16.

“Hopefully we can keep winning and take care of business to put ourselves in a position to play for first place in a couple of weeks,” Domenichelli said.