Reserve guard Rasheet Wilson picked up the intensity and helped the Pasadena City College men's basketball team turn around a 10-point deficit in a wild second-half rally as the Lancers roared past Barstow, 89-69, in the opening round of the Skip Robinson Classic Thursday night. The contest was one of four games played at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.
The Lancers (3-3) extended their winning streak to three games in their 2019-2020 home opener on their refurbished HP Gym floor. PCC will play Pierce Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m in one of the championship semifinals. The day starts with consolation semifinals games between LA Southwest v. Glendale at 1 p.m. and LA Trade Tech v. Barstow at 3 p.m., followed by a championship semi between Santiago Canyon and Mt. San Antonio at 5 p.m.
Barstow (1-6) led 38-33 at halftime and seemingly controlled things in extending a 53-43 lead with less than 13 minutes left. PCC's only spurt of the game was right after the tip-off when it had originally jumped out to a 9-0 lead. But down 10, Lancers head coach Michael Swanegan turned to an up-tempo lineup with reserve guards Wilson, Gabriel Ajemian and Patric Panoosi to go with starters in forward Jesse Watkins and point guard London Benford.
The team's pressure defense started creating turnovers with Wilson making a steal and layup then dishing a pass to Watkins for another basket-and-one. When Wilson sank two free throws to give PCC a 54-53 lead it capped an 11-0 run. The Lancers were far from done, however. With 7:46 left, Wilson drained a 3-pointer that regained the PCC lead (61-59). For the speedy 6-foot-3 freshman from Atlantic Community High in Florida, Wilson was just heating up. After Ajemian drove the lane for a basket-and-one, Wilson fired in three consecutive jumpers, the third a 3-point bomb for a 73-62 lead with 5:26 remaining.
PCC's defense continued to swarm all over the floor as Barstow fell apart in a sea of turnovers. The Vikings committed 14 turnovers over the last eight minutes as the Lancers pulled away for the victory. Barstow had 40 turnovers overall thanks mostly to PCC's defensive attack.
Wilson scored 17 of his 21 points points in the second half. He added four assists. Ajemian had eight points, four rebounds and made five steals while Panoosi had eight points and five steals. PCC's reserves combined for 40 points (27 in the second half). Watkins added 18 points and starting guard Anthony Gamboa totaled 17 points and seven boards. Starting guard Dominick Erby tallied 12 points. PCC was 23-for-29 from the free throw line (79.3 percent). Barstow was led by Evander Burns with a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds.
In other first round games, Santiago Canyon hit 15 shots from beyond the 3-point arc and routed LA Southwest, 94-56; Mt. SAC used strong defense to upend Glendale, 58-45; and Pierce made 20 straight free throws to open its game and was a red-hot 31-for-34 from the line overall (91.2 percent) in a 95-85 win over LA Trade Tech. The combination of Max Edwards, Wayne Currie and Kevin Fassu combined for 70 points and were a collective 27-for-30 on free throws.
Tourney namesake Skip Robinson and James Osterling, President of the Pasadena Area Community College District Board of Trustees, attended the SRC opener, see photo here: https://twitter.com/PCCAthletics/status/1195180998045995008/photo/1