Quick Study: Griffins solve ageless Buddha, Spartans

By ECS Staff
Updated: February 4, 2016

Grossmont goes over film study in preparation for MiraCosta

2015-16 GROSSMONT COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com

EL CAJON (2-4-16) — With four games left in the 2015-16 season, the Griffins of Grossmont College still have a mathematical chance of being champions of the PCAC-North for the second time in the last three seasons (co-champions in 2013-14).

Now realistically, it is going to be a tough challenge, but Coach DOUG WEBER’S crew is rounding into form at the right time. After defeating MiraCosta College (1-3 PCAC-North, 11-12 overall) on Wednesday (Feb. 3) 77-70 at Grossmont in come-from-behind fashion, the Griffins (2-2 PCAC-North, 14-9 overall) are in second place two games back of fifth ranked Mt. San Jacinto. The Eagles and Griffins faceoff on Friday (Feb. 5) at Grossmont.

“It was a weird game,” Griffin assistant coach JOHN CLARK said afterwards. “We missed our opportunities. We made some adjustments at halftime and came back and got the win.”

As far as the game against the Spartans is concerned, if you take Buddha Boyd out of the equation for MiraCosta it would have been a complete blowout. The 34-year-old poured in 37 points in 36 minutes.

To counteract that, three Griffins scored in double figures led by REMY LAWYER’s (Gold Coast, Australia) 19 points. SPENCER VERING (Mater Dei) had 15 and KAELEN MITCHELL (Helix) chipped in 13. Three other Griffins were within three points of double digits. One of those players was MARCOS MEZA who had eight points and 11 rebounds, and was the only player in the game with double digit rebounds.

After being tied at 3-3 two minutes into the contest, MCC went on a 15-4 run over a nine-minute span to take a 18-7 lead with half of the first half remaining. MiraCosta gained their largest lead of the night of 13 points with just over nine minutes left in the half. Grossmont went on a 24-17 run to close out the half for a 35-31 MiraCosta lead.

At the break, Boyd already had 17 points for the Spartans. However, it was the Griffins that had a better shooting percentage (38.5 to 36). What really kept MiraCosta in the game for the first half was the fact that they made (15) more free throws than what the Griffins attempted (14).

Grossmont tied the game up at 50 with a CORWIN FEERICK (University City) jumper with eight and a half to go. Just 75 seconds later Feerick hit a three-pointer to give the Griffins a little breathing room at 55-51. That sparked a 9-5 run for Grossmont and a 64-56 lead with three and a half to go. That would be the largest lead GC would have on the night.

The Griffins would hit nine of the 10 free throws they would be forced to shoot in the last 45 seconds of the game. In the second half, the Griffins shot an outstanding 56.7 percent from the field, while holding MiraCosta to 34.5 percent.

MiraCosta at Grossmont
@ Grossmont College
2/3/2016 at 6:00 PM

MiraCosta
70

Grossmont
77

FINAL	1	2	T
MiraCosta (11-12, 1-3)	35	35	70
Grossmont (14-9, 3-2)	31	46	77

#	STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
MiraCosta
10	Travell Hector	37	2-10	1-2	1-5	0	4	4	1	2	0	2	3	6
11	Buddha Boyd	36	9-19	1-6	18-19	2	4	6	1	2	0	4	3	37
12	Cody Hicks	27	0-3	0-3	0-0	0	4	4	0	0	0	1	4	0
13	Tristan Neihart	18	1-4	0-2	3-4	0	3	3	1	1	0	2	4	5
31	Aashad Womack	25	2-6	0-0	3-5	3	5	8	0	3	0	3	4	7
#	RESERVES	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
2	Kamien Cederlind	18	2-5	1-3	2-3	0	2	2	1	0	0	1	5	7
22	Billy Brown	27	3-3	0-0	0-0	2	3	5	0	0	0	0	2	6
33	Brennan Merchant	11	0-4	0-0	2-2	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	1	2
TM	Team					0	0	0				0	0
TOTALS			19-54 35.2%	3-16 18.8%	29-38 76.3%	8	25	33	4	8	0	15	26	70

#	STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Grossmont
1	Remy Lawyer	28	5-9	0-1	9-9	0	4	4	2	1	0	1	4	19
4	Marcos Meza	36	2-3	0-0	4-7	2	9	11	4	3	0	1	4	8
5	Daniel McCown	27	2-8	1-5	2-2	0	2	2	1	1	0	1	1	7
15	Spencer Vering	34	7-12	0-0	1-2	2	3	5	0	0	0	3	5	15
23	Kaelen Mitchell	35	5-12	2-7	1-2	0	3	3	1	0	0	1	2	13
#	RESERVES	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
11	Corwin Feerick	22	3-8	1-3	0-0	1	4	5	0	0	1	1	3	7
20	Larry Stokes	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
24	Luke Jackson	8	3-3	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	2	0	0	2	2	6
25	LeAndre Powell	9	0-1	0-0	2-4	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	3	2
TM	Team					0	0	0				1	0
TOTALS			27-56 48.2%	4-16 25.0%	19-26 73.1%	5	27	32	10	6	1	12	24	77

MIRACOSTA	TEAM STATISTICS	GROSSMONT
35.2% ( 19-54)	Field Goal %	48.2% ( 27-56)
18.8% ( 3-16)	3pt Field Goal %	25.0% ( 4-16)
76.3% ( 29-38)	Free Throw %	73.1% ( 19-26)
33	Rebounds	32
4	Assists	10
15	Turnovers	12
14	Points off Turnovers	20
9	2nd Chance Points	7
22	Points in the Paint	32
6	Fastbreak Points	8
15	Bench Points	15
13	Largest Lead	8
1st-09:08	Time of Largest Lead	2nd-03:25
Ties: 4; Lead Changes: 8