FAST-BREAKING THE BOBCATS

The No. 2 FC men's basketball squad welcomed Saddleback College to the Nest for an Orange Empire Conference showdown Friday night and the Hornets gave the crowd a show beating the Bobcats 79-55.

On January 6th, the new Winning Percentage Index (WPI) rankings came out with Fullerton coming in as the No. 1 team in Southern California with a rating of 3.933. Mt. SAC took the No. 2 spot (3.800), No. 3 Citrus (3.714), No. 4 Santiago Canyon (3.406), and No. 5 East LA (2.714). The top conferences in the state are the Coast-North for NorCal and the Orange Empire Conference for SoCal. San Francisco (4.643) and West Valley (3.188) came in as the top teams for the North. Click here to see the complete WPI rankings.

The win for the Hornets lifts the team to 15-2 overall and 4-1 in Orange Empire Conference-play, while the Bobcat loss places them at 8-9 overall and 2-3 in the OEC. 

Saddleback opened the game drilling a three-pointer by Jackson Gray and held control of the lead for the first 8 minutes. Down 11-9 in the 13th minute, Fullerton made its move tying it up on a jump shot by Joe Grahovac. Jaqari Miles soon gave the Hornets a 13-11 edge on a layup as the team pushed away from the Bobcats with an 21-7 run. The halftime buzzer sounded, and FC had worked its way to a 42-27 advantage.

Addy G'Bye returned the favor opening the second half with a deep three of his own. Fullerton went on to impose a 54-32 lead that was capped by a Joe Grahovac dunk by the 12-minute mark. The train kept rolling for the Hornets, who took their largest lead of 31 with 3 minutes left. Up big, FC burned the rest of the time off the clock for the conference victory.  

Leading the way for FC was Joe Grahovac with a game-high 20 points. He also added 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. Following closely behind Joe was Jaqari Miles who scored 19 points and was 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. Addy G'Bye put up 9 points with 5 rebounds, while Jackson Hopps contributed 7 points with 3 rebounds. Darvelle Wyatt scored 6 points with 6 boards, had 2 assists, and a steal.  

Up Next: The Hornets (15-2 overall, 4-1 OEC) host Riverside City College on Wednesday, January 15th for another big OEC game. Tipoff will be at 6:00 pm. Come on out and support your Hornets!