Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
The Cerro Coso men's basketball team entered Saturday's game against Chaffey on a two-game winning streak after defeating Palo Verde and Victor Valley in Inland Empire Athletic Conference play before going on Christmas and New Year's break, but in a very close game that saw head coach Chris Dugan ejected for protesting multiple non-calls on fouls, the Coyotes had a late collapse to fall to the Panthers, 70-64.
Cerro Coso head coach Chris Dugan had no comments after the game, which was a battle for first place in conference.
Four of the five starters for the Coyotes scored in double digits, led by Jason Morris with 17 points. Jon Leggett had 14 points, Trent Gordon with 11, and Tzahari Trevino finished with 10. Anthony Edouard and Leggett led the team with six rebounds each, Trevino had two steals, and Leggett had eight assists.
As a team, the Coyotes shot 38.7% from the field on 62 attempts, 37% from the three-point line on 27 attempts, and 66.7% from the free-throw line on nine attempts. They had 23 rebounds but only three on the offensive glass, 13 assists, four steals, and one block.
For the first 20 minutes, both teams traded blows in a half where the referees allowed a lot of physical play. There were four ties and three lead changes in the first half with the Coyotes not getting their first lead until Leggett hit a three with 15:58 left in the half. The home team extended the lead to 17-12 after a three-point play from Gordon with 12:44 on the clock, but the visitors responded with an 8-0 run forcing Dugan to call a timeout with his team trailing 20-17.
The Coyotes continued to fight back and stay close to the Panthers. Jami Hagger hit a corner three and Gordon scored a layup but missed the and-one free throw, which cut the deficit to one at 25-24 with five minutes left in the half. Chaffey responded with a layup and Trevino hit a three to tie the game at 27-27 with 4:25 left. Both teams traded baskets for the final four minutes with Trevino hitting a fadeaway jump shot with 31 seconds left to secure a 37-37 halftime score.
The second half did not follow the same script as the first, with no ties and only three lead changes. The first lead change happened when Morris scored his two free throws giving the Coyotes a 39-37 lead after 15 seconds. That started a 7-0 run with a fadeaway from Leggett and a corner three from Trevino for a 44-37 lead. The Coyotes continued to extend the lead with Leggett scoring a three and then hitting a jumper shot from the elbow, and Gordon scoring on a hook shot in the paint. The Coyotes led 53-47 with 10:11 left in the game.
But then Dugan was called for his first technical foul and the Panthers went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to one, 53-52. A layup from Gordon gave the home team a three-point lead, but then the same referee ejected Dugan with his second technical after complaining about his player being fouled and no call being made. For the final eight minutes, the Coyotes played without their head coach, and the Panthers went on to take the lead, 57-55. Edouard went to the free throw line and scored one of two and then scored a layup to retake the lead, 58-57.
The Coyotes held a one-point lead with six minutes left and then went on a drought on the offensive end and collapsed on the defensive end for the next five minutes. Edouard missed a free throw and the offense became stagnant, settling for contested outside jumpers and not attacking the paint. For the final six minutes, the Coyotes did not make a pass into the paint at all.
The defense struggled as the team forgot to rebound the ball and gave the Panthers multiple second and third opportunities, which the visitors took advantage of to go on an 8-0 run. The Coyotes final two buckets were three pointers from AJ McLaughlin.
The Coyotes will look to bounce back when they visit Copper Mountain on Wednesday with tipoff at 7 p.m. They return home on Wednesday, Jan. 15, hosting Desert with tipoff at 7 p.m.