A recap of the JC Championship game

Mt. San Antonio State Champs
by Robert Schmidt 
March 18 2013

Mt. San Antonio College tallied the highest score in California Community College Athletic Association Men’s Basketball Championship Game history Sunday afternoon to win its first title, defeating Chaffey College of Rancho Cucamonga, 102-88, at the Cosumnes River College Community and Athletic Center.

Garrett Nevels (out of Palisades Charter High School) had 32 points and Corey Allen (St. Louis-Ritenour) had 25 points and eight assists to lead the Mounties in scoring. Forward Cliff Sims (Compton High) pulled down a game-high ten rebounds. All are Mt. SAC sophomores. Nevels, a 6-2 guard, was the tournament MVP and the 6-2 Allen also made the all-tourney team.

Chaffey (27-7) was led by all-tournament guards Justin Long, 23 points, and Ryan Nitz, 15 points – both sophomore guards from Rancho Cucamonga High School.

Mt. SAC (29-3) led by as many 23 points, 58-35, with 15:22 left in the game. But the Panthers came back to close to within eight points at 83-75 with 3:35 to play on a three-point play by Long. A seven-point run by the Mounties then led to the victory.

Mt. San Antonio led, 41-29, at the half and then scored the first three baskets after the intermission to quickly increase the margin to 19 points.

Chaffey had led early, 11-7. Mt. SAC took the lead for good at 15-13 with 13:12 left in the half on two technical foul shots by Allen following a game tying dunk by Chaffey’s Adom Jacko, who was called for hanging on the rim.

Mt. SAC shot nearly 70 per cent (37 of 53) from the field – and 86.4 per cent in the second half.

The 190 points were the highest two-team total in a state final. The only previous 100 point score was Bakersfield 100, City College of San Francisco 85 (for a thenrecord 185 points) in 1978.

This was the time the Mounties had reached the state finals since 1955 — their only previous appearance — when they lost to Fresno, 88-85. It was Chaffey first state title game appearance.