DAY TWO OF THE FC CLASSIC - HORNETS OVER WILDCATS

Suffering its first loss of the season the night before, the FC men's basketball team bounced back with a 59-54 victory over No. 5 West Los Angeles College on Friday afternoon.

In the day's other games, No. 16 Citrus downed Southwestern 84-73, No. 7 San Diego City knocked off Chaffey 67-54 advancing to the Championship, and No. 14 College of the Sequoias will join San Diego City in the ship after beating LA Southwest 89-74.

It was a good matchup that featured two teams that were stunned in the tournament's opening day. Fullerton came in ranked No. 1 in the state and West LA ranking 5th.

Both the Hornets and the Wildcats exchanged a series of three-pointers in the opening minutes of the game with Kobe Newton hitting another one putting FC up 9-6 at 16:33. Ronnie Stapp's jumper extended the Hornets lead at 11-6, but West L.A. quickly caught up to tie the game at 17 a piece by 7:16. With 4:04 left in the half, the Wildcats took the lead at 28-25, but Kobe Newton nailed a three-pointer to tie it back up. Halftime saw the Wildcats regain a 35-28 lead.

In the second half, West LA took its biggest lead of 9 on a steal and layup by Matthew Mayes in the first minute. The Wildcats kept Fullerton in check maintaining a 5-point lead until the 10:24 mark. Javon Jones knocked down a three-point shot and by 8:59 the Hornets tied the game up 48-48 on a put-back by Tristan Williams. The fight was on as both teams slugged it out until the finish. FC showed heart and resilience taking a 55-50 advantage with 2 minutes left in the game. The Wildcats did their best to pull off another Hornet upset getting within three points (57-54) with second left on the clock, but Fullerton was not in the mood for a repeat of last night. Sean Newman Jr. entered the game late was brought in to ice the game with a couple of free throws. He hit them both preserving the win. 

Kobe Newton (cover photo) hit a team-high 15 points with 4 asssits and 3 boards. Ronnie Stapp scored 14 points with 6 rebounds, and Chazz Hutchison powered in 11 points with 9 rebounds. Javon Jones and Gaven Ramirez both contributed 5 points. 

Up Next: The Hornets (9-1 overall) will play No. 16 Citrus College (7-3) this Saturday, December 11th in the Consolation Championship. Tipoff is at 3:00 pm. 

Check the FullCollSports YouTube page for all of the live broadcasts of each game.

Other Matchups for Day Three (Saturday, December 11th)
1:00 pm - No. 5 West LA vs. Southwestern - 7/8 Place Game
5:00 pm - Chaffey vs. LA Southwest - 3rd Place Game
7:00 pm - No. 7 San Diego City vs. No. 14 Sequoias - Championship Game

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