College of the Canyons men’s basketball was tied with the Bakersfield College Renegades with less than four minutes left in the game.
The game was a back-and-forth frenzy before Canyons went on a late run to close out the game, 64-55.
The Cougars (12-11, 3-6) have struggled to close out games this season but rode a 9-0 run to the finish of Wednesday’s Western State Conference South matchup.
Rebounding has been an emphasis for COC, a fact that forward Jonah El-Farra made clear in the paint. The sophomore forward scored 17 points while bringing down a season-high 21 rebounds.
“I do what I can for my team,” El-Farra said. “I try to do the best I can each and every single day because I know we’re all working together.”
It took some time for the Cougars to find their rhythm. Bakersfield (11-12, 3-6) took an early 7-0 lead as Canyons struggled to score until nearly five minutes into the first half on the team’s eighth shot.
El-Farra tied up the score with an offensive putback to make it 19-19. Canyons then flirted with the lead but couldn’t get ahead by much. COC point guard Dillon Barrientos gave his team the lead going into halftime with a tough layup that just beat the buzzer.
The Cougars missed a handful of layups throughout the game, making it difficult to build up any sort of lead. Bakersfield sophomore Rahmel Davis killed Canyons on the interior, giving his team life. Davis scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half while adding 13 rebounds, eight off the offensive boards.
The performance was as expected for Renegades coach Aaron Chavez.
“Rahmel’s a dude,” Chavez said. “He’s a stud, all-conference player. When you’re an all-conference player, it shows. He’s a good student and a student of basketball. He performed well tonight but that’s expected.”
Davis was a force for Bakersfield before a knee injury forced him to take an early exit from the game.
Fortunately for COC, forward Andrew Henderson also surged in the second half, scoring 13 of his 24 points with seven rebounds, two steals and a pair of blocks.
“The win means a lot. We always needed a dub. We’ve been losing a lot but we’re getting back in our groove.”
Canyons’ defense won the game in the end as the squad held the Renegades without a field goal in the final seven minutes of play.
The Renegades took round one with the Cougars in Bakersfield, 73-66, after Canyons shot 16-of-32 from the charity stripe. COC coach Howard Fisher made some necessary adjustments, which became key to victory on Wednesday.
“We did a much better job defensively,” Fisher said. “We changed a couple of things that we did defensively from the first game and it paid off for us.”
The Cougars’ current win streak is only at two games, but each were wins against teams that previously bested COC.
“We’ve all been focusing on trying to get more rebounds,” Henderson said. “All five of us crashed the boards. Most of the games we lost just because we got out-rebounded.”
The Cougars will now aim for their third straight win on the road. Canyons will have to go through the top-seeded Citrus Owls to reach that mark. It would be nothing short of a statement win for COC, which lost 92-74 in its previous matchup with the Owls.
Canyons heads to Glendora to take on Citrus on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“I think our unity and our energy is going to continue to be there,” El-Farra said. “If we continue to execute on offense and defense, we’re going to be a really good team and a hard one to beat.”
