By Wes McCurtis
The CCCAA announced that the Cypress College men's basketball team (13-14, 5-7 OEC) has earned a 2017 postseason bid as the 20th seed in the south. The Chargers will travel to take on 13th seeded Riverside City College (21-8, 8-4 OEC) on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.
The men's basketball program, led by 3rd year Head Coach Andrew Alhadeff, will make back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time in 16 seasons and are 1-of-14 teams in the south making a back-to-back appearance.
Despite a 4-game skid to end the regular season, the Chargers have shown flashes of potential throughout the year. Cypress is one of the top ranked defensive teams in the state and if things are going well offensively they can beat anyone on any given night. The Chargers' biggest win of the season came less than a month ago when they handed now OEC Champion and 1st seeded Fullerton College a 67-61 loss.
The Chargers are led by First Team All-OEC selection O'Shae Williams and Second Team All-OEC selection David Murrell. Williams does it all for the Chargers, leading the team in points (16.6), rebounds (5.7), and assists (3.8) per game. Williams arguably had his best performance of the year to close out the regular season. He logged a double-double with a career-high 40 points off the bench. Murrell is a natural born scorer, and hard to stop when he has the hot hand. Murrell averaged 10.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game during the regular season.
Riverside has had the Chargers' number this year, defeating them in both meetings, including a last second 77-74 victory at Cypress and a 75-58 victory on their home floor.
2017 CCCAA SOCAL REGIONAL BRACKET
2017 ALL-ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE SELECTIONS
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