Clock Strikes Midnight On Cinderella: Copper Mountain Falls Short In Second Upset Bid

San Diego, CA - Copper Mountain College men's basketball team took another step forward in their goal of being considered one of the top programs in Southern California on a yearly basis. In just their fifth full season as a program, the Fighting Cacti were in the Southern California Regional Playoffs for the third time. In year one of the program, the Cacti found themselves with a home playoff game after going 20-9 on the season. They would eventually drop a tightly contested affair to Ventura in the Bell Center. After a two season (three years because of the COVID year) hiatus from the playoffs, the Cacti were back last year as they knocked off LA Southwest for their first playoff win in school history. The second round was not as kind to the Cacti as they were never really in the contest, losing to Riverside by 29 points. This year's team was looking to continue the growth of the program and they did just that.

After going on the road and getting an upset win over ninth seeded Cerritos in double over, the men had a chance to avenage two of their losses this year against San Diego City  College. The Cacti felt they had an advantage against the Knights with their big man Jaylon Lee and they went there early and often as the visiting Cacti held the lead for the first 7:45 of play. Lee had five of the teams first 12 points and San Diego had struggles everytime the 6'10" center touched the ball. The Knights switched things up defensively and started to show more pressure from that point. The defensive switch was a good call as the Knights were slowly pulling away in the last ten minutes of the first half. 

Everytime it felt like the Knights were about to blow open the game, the Cacti had an answer and kept it a single digit deficit heading into the break as the Cacti trailed 38-29. The first couple minutes of the second half saw both teams exchanging baskets. Thats when the Cacti finally found the range from distance. After a Larry Holmes dunk that saw the Knights lead shrink to seven, Lydell Boyd hit a three to find the Cacti only down four against the powerful San Diego city squad. The Knights answer with a three from Lorenzo Wright and Antonio "Rev" Reviere would knock another one down for the Cacti. The Cacti's defense was solid giving the offense three stright possessions to try and pull closer, but they were unable to do so. Wright would eventially knock down another three for the Knights with 13:49 to play in the first half to extend the lead back to seven. The Cacti would never get any closer as they eventually fell by 10 points to the eighth seeded Knights.

Lee finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Holmes had 12 points and Reviere added 10 for the Cacti on the night. After shooting over 47% from three in round one, Copper Mountain struggled from deep in round two as they only hit four on the night. The Cacti finished the year at 17-13, securing their fourth winning season in five complete seasons as a program. (They were .500 in their other season).