The California community college state men’s and women’s basketball championship tournament took place last weekend at Mt. San Antonio College with eight teams (four from Northern California and four from Southern California) in each gender bracket.
In the men’s final, NorCal No. 1 San Francisco City defeated SoCal No. 1 Fullerton by a score of 75-58 behind double-digit scoring from tournament MVP Miles Amos (20 points), Rickey Mitchell Jr. (14 points) and John Squire (13 points). Fullerton was led by Jaqari Miles with 20 points and Joe Grahovac with 15 points.
Besides Amos, the all-tournament team included San Francisco’s K.J. Perry and Squire, Fullerton’s Miles and Grahovac and Citrus’ Tyler Issak.
San Francisco defeated SoCal No. 4 Cerritos, 82-70, in the opening quarterfinals while Fullerton topped NorCal No. 4 Cosumnes River, 68-53. In other quarterfinal action, SoCal No. 2 Citrus eliminated NorCal No. 3 Las Positas, 112-73, while SoCal No. 3 San Bernardino Valley defeated NorCal No. 2 West Valley by a score of 68-40.
San Francisco City nudged Citrus, 111-97, in the ensuing semifinals while Fullerton knocked out San Bernardino Valley, 83-76.
On the women’s side, No. 2 SoCal seed Mt. San Antonio defeated SoCal No. 1 Orange Coast, 52-39, in the championship game.
Taliyah McFerson led the Lady Mounties with 15 points while teammates Daisia Mitchell (12 points) and Elizabeth Udeze (10 points) also scored in double figures.
Hailey Estrada keyed OCC with 12 points.
All-tournament team selections included Mitchell, McFerson, Udeze and Estrada along with OCC’s Myia Collins, Sequoias’ Jocelyn Medina and Glendale’s Malia Ulery.
Mt. SAC defeated NorCal No. 3 Sierra, 68-45, in the opening quarterfinals before slipping past NorCal No. 1 Sequoias, 57- 50, in the semifinals.
Orange Coast topped NorCal No. 4 Folsom, 95-59, in the quarterfinals, then eliminated SoCal No. 3 Glendale, 64-49, in the semifinals.
Glendale defeated NorCal No. 2 San Joaquin Delta, 64-49, while Sequoias defeated SoCal No. 4 Palomar, 77-71, in other quarterfinal matchups.
It was a record-setting season for the Grossmont College women who recorded 20 wins or more for the first time in 15 years, ranked top 20 in the state, top 10 in the region and had the leading scorer (freshman Kyla Palpallatoc with 16.5 points per game) in the Pa¬cific Coast Athletic Conference.
All-conference
First team picks included Palpallatoc and Janea Wilson (10.8 ppg) from the Lady Griffins while Chaya Scott earned second team honors.
Second team selections on the men’s side included Cuyamaca’s Jamier Sykes and Grossmont’s Tobey Malpass.
Players of the Year featured San Diego City sophomore guard Logan Huston (men) and Palomar freshman guard Kylee Trujillo (women).
