COD Men’s Basketball gets back to even on season, shoots down Comets, 81-66

COD (12-12; 3-3) tied a season high in steals (19) and hit eleven 3-pointers in a game where the Roadrunners led from beginning to end, as Desert knocked off the Palomar Comets of San Marcos (7-16; 1-5), 81-66. 

The game played closer than it should have, as Palomar took over in the paint, scoring 42 of their 81 points down low, compared to the Roadrunners 36 points and the rebounding war was close, as Desert held a slight advantage 43 to 41, but every other statistical category was fairly lopsided.

The Roadrunners dominated on points off of turnovers (26 to 10), fast break points (10 to 2), turnovers (24 to 15) and the all-important, bench points, where Desert rolled, 30 to 4.

Freshman starting guard Sam Skipper (Perris H.S.) led the team with 18 points on 5 of 18 shooting from the field and 4 of 11 shooting from beyond the arc and sophomore starting guard Gunnar Mogolis (Palm Desert H.S.) added 15 points on 7 of 14 shooting and tied for the team lead in total rebounds with seven.

"It was awesome, we shared the ball really well, we came out and played a lot of defense, showed out really strong, really set the tempo, and just rolled through it," commented Mogolis after the game. Later discussing the second half, "We started out slow and then, coach called a time out, kind of huddled us up, said 'don't let (this game) fall back (into their hands),' we kind of just finished it through." On leading the team in board, Mogolis stated, "They weren't boxing out too well, but (I) took advantage of it, Nicholas was boxing out great, so was Deondre, so I just got to (each board) when I could."

Sophomore guard Marquete Eddie (Washington, D.C. Friendship Collegiate Academy) contributed 11 points off of the bench, on 4 of 12 shooting, grabbing three steals and six boards.

Sophomore guard Shaquille Russell (Reseda Cleveland) also made his way off of the bench to add ten points on 4 of 8 shooting, including leading the team in steals and shooting 2 of 5 from beyond three-point range.

"It was good, hard fought victory for us, glad that everyone came out to play today off the bench, starters came in hot, pretty good win for us," stated Russell on the win. Sharing his thoughts on the beginning of the second half, Russell said, "(We) came in not with the same intensity, came in felt kind of comfortable with the twenty point lead, but after a couple minutes went in, we turned it up on defense and started making some shots and we just ended the game."

Follow COD Athletics on Twitter @COD_Athletics Instagram @COD_Athletics or Facebook @College of the Desert Athletics

For additional information, please contact the COD Sports Information Office at 760.423.6641.

Information & Story provided by COD Sports Information. Photo by Cliff Robbins (sportseditor@att.net).