Cats beat Pirates to go above .500

The Saddleback men's basketball team moved back above .500 with a 77-59 victory at Orange Coast College on Wednesday night in Costa Mesa.  The Bobcats are tied for sixth place in the Orange Empire Conference with seven games remaining.

Saddleback started quickly, jumping out to an 8-0 lead in a game that they never trailed.  Charlie Stallings scored the first four points of the game on way to scoring 13 points in the opening half of a game that Saddleback led by five points at the break.

Orange Coast chipped away at the lead and eventually got it down to one point at the beginning of the second half after Jayden Baude made a pair of free throws to cut the Saddleback advantage to 34-33 with 18:48 remaining.  It was as close at OCC would get as the Bobcat defense held the Pirates scoreless for the next 3:15 while pushing the lead back to seven. 

Saddleback then scored six straight points, led by a dunk from Malachi Hiers.  The Bobcat lead would expand all the way to 19 points after Hiers hammered home another dunk with 5:03 remaining for a 68-49 lead.  Saddleback cruised the rest of the way en route to improving to 11-10 overall and 2-5 in Orange Empire Conference play.

Stallings and Jacob Simon led Saddleback with 16 points apiece while Hiers finished with 15 points.  The Bobcat defense gave Orange Coast all kinds of problems, forcing the Pirates into 21 turnovers for the game.

Saddleback will host Fullerton College on Friday night at 5:00 PM Inside the gymnasium.