Hawks Sweep Season Series against District Rival
It was a tightly woven contest on Friday night as the Santiago Canyon College men's basketball team hit the road to face off against in-district rival Santa Ana College Dons. Both teams swapped leads six times on the night, but it was the Hawks who had the final say as they hauled in a 76-70 win.
Santa Ana was efficient with their approach as they hit more than half of their shots from the floor. However, a 30.6 three-point percentage from the Hawks put them over the hump. They shined defensively as they forced a season-high 23 turnovers while only coughing up the rock 11 times on their end.
The Hawks ended each half with the lead as they entered into the locker room with a two point lead, then outscored the Dons by four points in the second half.
To no surprise, sophomore guard Kai Smith paced the pack on the offensive end by dropping a team-high 19 points. He flushed a pair of three pointers to go along with four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
His fellow backcourt member in the form of sophomore guard Damien Parker backed him with 14 points accompanied by three assists and three steals. Freshman guard Trevor Manning matched his three steals off the pine while also dropping 12 points. It was Manning's second-consecutive double-digit output after flushing a season-high 18 points against Riverside earlier in the week.
Sophomore guard Joey Longo flirted with a double-double after dropping 10 points and hauling in six rebounds. He added three assists and a steal as well.