Santa Maria, CA—The College of Marin Men’s Basketball team traveled down to Allan Hancock College last weekend to participate in the inaugural Home Motors Men’s Basketball Tournament. Marin joined a field of six teams in the round-robin tournament, including two fellow Bay Valley Conference teams, Yuba and Napa Valley. The team left from Kentfield on Thursday afternoon and arrived at the team hotel later that evening.
After a good night’s rest the Mariners were ready to kick-off the tournament. Marin took on Cuesta College on Friday afternoon. The Cougars jumped on the Mariners early, forcing turnovers and sloppy play by Marin. The Mariners cleaned things up and narrowed the Cougar lead to two, going into halftime trailing 37-35. George Johnson went to work in the second half for the Mariners, going a perfect 14-14 at the line on the day on his way to a game best 25 points. Noah Everly contributed 3 second half three-pointers to help Marin grab a late lead over Cuesta. Everly also made his presence felt on the defensive end as he blocked a Karem Ozel shot with under 10 seconds in the game. The Mariners went on to win 68-66, extending their winning streak to three games.
Saturday afternoon saw the Mariners take the floor against the San Diego City College Knights. Once again the Mariners started out sluggish, trailing for most of the first half thanks to turnovers in the offensive end and foul trouble for big men Karim Ndiaye and Bobby Reeves. The Mariners went into the intermission on a high-note, however, as Noah Everly hit a 3 with time expiring to put Marin on top 31-30 to end the first half. The Mariners continued to battle with the Knights, exchanging leads as the game wound down. With the game tied at 55 and the shot clock turned off the Mariners had a chance to take the final shot, but another turnover in the offensive end saw the game go into overtime. The overtime period was not kind to the Mariners as they mustered only 3 points compared to the Knights 13. San Diego snapped the Mariners 3 game winning streak, issuing Marin the 68-58 loss. Despite fouling out Bobby Reeves picked up a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. George Johnson once again led Marin in points, picking up 14 in the loss. One of the highlights in the loss was Johnson’s lob to Ken Modica who threw it down with authority, a top 5 play of the entire tournament.
The Mariners looked to brush off the tough loss on Sunday afternoon as they played the host school, Allan Hancock, in the final game of the Home Motors tournament. The Bulldogs forced Keiland Callum and Karim Ndiaye into foul trouble, altering the game plan for Marin. Noah Everly stepped up for the Mariners scoring 15 points in the first half to keep Marin within striking distance, 40-33, as the teams headed to their locker rooms. The Mariners returned from halftime with a renewed vigor and scored 6 quick points to draw the game to within one, 40-39. From there on out the teams battled back and forth, neither team up by more than 5. With under twenty seconds to play George Johnson sank a clutch 3-pointer with a hand in his face to put the Mariners on top 59-58. The Bulldogs advanced the ball and called a timeout to set up a play. With 5.5 seconds remaining, and down one, the Bulldogs got the ball out to Matt Wilkomm, whose defender had fallen down. He fired a three-pointer and the Mariners watched helplessly as it caught nothing but net. After being fouled on the inbounds play, George Johnson would add one point from the free-throw line, but the Mariners would not score again to fall 62-60 in heart-breaking fashion. Noah Everly led all players in scoring with 23 and picked up All-Tournament Team honors.
The back-to-back losses place the Mariners at 4-5 on the year, Head Coach Marshall Collins and Assistant Coach De’Undrae Perteete, though disappointed with the two tough losses, are confident the team will be where they need to be when conference play rolls around. The Mariners next game comes at Santa Rosa on Thurday, December 3rd, a 7:00 o’clock start.