MISSING THE DANCE

The No. 1 seed Hornets took on No. 9 Citrus on Saturday night to see who would advance to the CCCAA State Tournament, and Fullerton was stymied by the Owls 84-72.

The last time the CCCAA held the State Tournament was in March of 2019 (COVID-19 2020 and 2021) at Ventura College, where the Hornets knocked off San Francisco City College 85-79 to become the State Champions. It was not the Hornet's night just missing their third chance to make it to the State Dance under the leadership of Coach Perry Webster (since 2015).

FC came out in the first minutes of the game grabbing a 14-6 lead on a layup by Ronnie Stapp. The Owls came swooping back to snatch a 17-16 advantage on Cedric Reed's 3-pointer. Fullerton took off on an 11-4 run (27-20) by 5:30 mark and it looked like they would roll into halftime with a decent lead. Citrus had other plans in the works swinging the momentum back in its favor ending the half with a 34-30 edge.

The Owls added to their lead in the second half on a Chris Harper layup at 50-40 by 14:00 minute mark keeping the Hornets off balance with a press. FC did its best to counter with a press of its own getting within 4 points (52-48) with 12 minutes left in regulation, however Citrus forged ahead maintaining a 10-point lead (80-70) by the final minute.

The back breaker for Fullerton was its cold spell from beyond the arc shooting 21.7% to Citrus' 50%.

Ronnie Stapp was the FC scoring leader with 18 points. Tristan Williams followed up with 17 points and 5 rebounds. Ryan Blackmon scored 13 points and Kobe Newton put up 12.

It was another outstanding season by the 2021-22 Orange Empire Conference Champion Hornets, who finished the season with an overall 25-4 record.