Bracket

In a season where the Cerritos College men's basketball team won a share of the South Coast Conference South Division championship and eclipsed the 20-win plateau for the 42nd time in school history, the team has been seeded #11 for the Southern California Regional Playoffs. The Falcons (20-8) will host #22-seeded Saddleback College (12-17), who came in sixth place in the Orange Empire Conference. The winner of the game will travel to San Diego City College to take on the #5-seeded Knights.

This will be the first meeting between the two teams since the 2022-23 season, where the Bobcats posted a 69-59 win, although the two teams scrimmaged each other back on October 17. It will also mark the first time Saddleback has played at The Aviary since 1993, with the Falcons posting an 84-81 win.

Cerritos has a combined 7-5 record against teams that have qualified for the postseason, while the Bobcats are 5-11 against playoff teams. 

The Falcons are sophomore-heavy and led by two solid guards, Darron Henry (Long Beach Poly HS) and Dillon Botts (Mayfair HS), while center Spencer Ezewiro (Paramount HS/Moberly Area, MO CC) is a threat on both ends of the court. Henry leads the team in scoring (13.7 ppg) assist (5.3 apg), while he averages 4.2 rebouds a game, which is tied for the second most on the team. As for Botts, he has averaged 8.0 points, 3.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds a game. Ezewiro is second on the team with a 12.2 scoring average and hauls down nine rebounds a game. The bench has also provided a great boost to the offense, with Marcel Hayes (Long Beach Poly HS) contributing 11.8 points and 4.2 rebounds a game, with Andrew Mata (Schurr HS/Holy Cross, IN College) knocking down 75 three-pointers this season and produces 9.1 points a game. 

As a team, Cerritos has six player that average at least eight points a game and have had six players score in double figures in each of the last two games.

The Bobcats, who enter the postseason with losses in five of their last six games, have turned to David Mitchell (12.4 ppg), Jackson Gray (10.6 ppg) and T.J. Tittelfitz (10.3 ppg) for their scoring, while Gray has knocked down 67 of their three-pointers. Prior to his season-ending injury, Charlie Stallings was leading the team in scoring (16.0 ppg) and rebounding (7.9 rpg).