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California Community College Athletic Association

GCC's Beuchemin Wins #589, Fourth in History

GCC's Beuchemin Wins #589, Fourth in History
Box Score
February 10, 2014

Basketball: Vaqueros hold on for 73-71 victory to put longtime coach at fourth in state.

By Emin Avakian, Special to the Glendale News-Press

GLENDALE — Despite squandering a sizable second-half lead and playing a less-than-stellar final eight minutes of the game, the Glendale Community College men's basketball team held on to notch its fourth straight victory and placed coach Brian Beauchemin alone in fourth place on the state's all-time win list in the process.

The Vaqueros led by 15 points in the second half before visiting Santa Monica College's frantic comeback put them up by one point with less than a minute remaining.

For the second straight game, however, Glendale converted on a game-winning basket in the waning seconds of regulation and prevailed, 73-71, Saturday evening.

Emmett Duvall's offensive rebound and put-back with 20.3 seconds remaining resulted in Glendale's second field goal in the final eight minutes. On Wednesday, Jalen Etienne connected on a three-pointer with less than one second remaining to lift the Vaqueros (19-4, 7-2) to a Western State Conference South Division victory. Glendale sits in second place in the conference standings.

"That's good, it's a sign of a good team," said Beauchemin of the late-game heroics.

Beuchemin, who has been at the helm in Glendale since 1979, picked up his 589th career victory.

"We were out of sync," he said of the second-half struggles. "I don't know what happened. We just unplugged ourselves."

Earlier in the second half, Glendale's sophomore guard Emerson Castaneda gave the Vaqueros a 63-48 lead with his jumper. Castaneda also hit two three-pointers in the half, but the first 10 minutes of the half proved to be more favorable to Glendale than the latter 10 minutes, as Santa Monica's Madison Higgins led a 23-7 run with 17 of his game-high 31 points.

Higgins' basket gave the Corsairs (13-9, 2-6) a 71-70 lead with less than a minute remaining and the team's first since 15-14 early in the contest.

It would be final points for Santa Monica on the night, as Glendale answered with a free throw from Etienne with 50 seconds on the clock to knot the score at 70 and Duvall's game-winning basket inside came 30 seconds later. Santa Monica misfired on a three-pointer and one inside the paint came up short.