CRC Hawks (8-14, 2-8) vs. San Joaquin Delta College (13-10, 6-5)

@ Cosumnes River College

Sacramento, Calif – Cosumnes River (8-14, 2-8) started the game playing against the Delta zone defense, and they took the first ten minutes to get offensive flow. The Hawks found themselves down early in the game, but once they established a nice balance of inside-outside scoring, the Hawks went on a run.

Consistent inside scoring from Dillon Iyawe (8pts, 13rbs) and Christian Hough (11pts, 5rbs) as well as perimeter scoring from Andre Huddleston (20pts, 3rbs) and Adam Orr (11pts, 7rbs) forced the Mustangs to drop their zone defense and match up man-to-man. The Hawks created a 14-pt swing in the first half from being down as much as 7 and then taking a 33-26 lead into the break.

CRC extended their advantage with their largest lead of the game at 47-34 with 13:51 left. After a Delta timeout, the Mustangs crept back in the game slowly. The Hawks got plenty of good looks in the paint on drives, post play, and putback opportunities but really struggled to convert. CRC also did a nice job getting to the line in this game. After shooting 83% in the first half from the line, the Hawks shot a poor 57% on 8-for-14 from the free-throw line. The scoring drought proved to hurt Cosumnes River in the end.

Delta took a 1pt lead at 57-56 with a 3pt shot with 3:04 remaining. Huddleston, who has played very strong over the second half of Big8 Conference play this season, attacked the paint and drew a foul. He made both free throws to help the Hawks retake the lead 58-57. Delta answered back with an offensive rebound putback on the next possession. After a missed opportunity for the Hawks on the next possession, Delta had the ball and took a timeout with 27.2 seconds left. Delta shot the ball at the end of their shot clock with no score, but the rebound wasn't secured on the scramble for the ball. It went out-of-bounds off CRC, so Delta maintained possession with 11 seconds remaining. CRC was forced to foul and stop the clock once the ball was inbounded. With 8.5 seconds, Delta missed a 1-on-1 free-throw. CRC secured the rebound on the miss and called timeout.

From the inbounds pass in the backcourt and with the final shot to win the game, Huddleston had a decent look at the basket on a drive from the top. On the miss, Kenneth Cooley had an aggressive offensive rebounding tip opportunity to score the winning basket that just rimmed out before the buzzer. The Hawks dropped a heartbreaker 59-58 at home.

The Hawks will remain at home and now prepare for Folsom Lake on Coaches vs Cancer Night. All proceeds from the game will be donated to the American Cancer Society.