HORNETS PASS 2ND ROUND TEST

Battling it out in the 2nd Round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs, the No. 1 seed Hornets hosted No. 16 Mt. San Antonio College on Thursday night and ended the Mounties season with an 84-76-win.

FC will now play in the third round of the CCCAA Regionals against No. 9 Citrus College, who upset No. 8 Ventura College tonight 77-74. The Owls and Hornets met earlier in the season at the Fullerton College Classic Consolation title game on December 11th. Fullerton got past Citrus in that one 67-64.

Tonight's game against Mt. SAC looked like it was going to be a blowout early on as FC cruised ahead with a 24-10 lead that was capped off by a 3-point shot by Gaven Ramirez (9:16). The Mounties did not pack it up hitting a few shots to get within 10 (43-33) by the time halftime rolled around.

The second half proved that Mt. SAC still had plenty of gas in the tank going on a 12-2 run taking a 45-44 lead. The game got physical as both teams fought for momentum. By the 15:12 mark, the Mounties put up their biggest lead of 5 (49-44) on a shot beyond the arc by Shaquil Bender. Fullerton answered back with a vicious dunk by Chazz Hutchison and the fight was on. At 9:08 Kobe Newton knocked down a momentum building 3-pointer giving FC a 58-56 lead. The Hornets pushed their lead to 77-69 on another 3-point dagger by Newton. After that, FC never looked back burning the clock and exiting the Hornets Nest with the win.

Chazz Hutchison had a night scoring a game-high 28 points with 9 rebounds. Ronnie Stapp scored 19 points and had 5 rebounds, while Kobe Newton put up 17 points with 4 rebounds. Gaven Ramirez added 14 points on the night.  

Up Next: No. 1 Fullerton (25-3 overall) will host No. 9 Citrus College (22-6) in the 3rd Round of the SoCal Regionals on Saturday, March 5th at 7:00 pm. Come on out and support your Hornets! The winner of this game goes on to play in the CCCAA State Tournament!