The men’s basketball season saw many ups and downs from dealing with injuries suffered by key players, to the team reaching the playoffs for the first time in four years but still fell short of even advancing to the second round.
The Lancers season kicked off in a excited way by winning in a double overtime game over Moorpark on November 1st. PCC didn’t have their first conference game until January 23rd against Rio Hondo which saw the Lancers come out victorious in 1 point overtime game.
The Lancers reached the playoffs with a 5-5 conference record and a overall record of 17-12.
Chris Blount draws the foul against a Cuesta defender in Hutto Patterson gymnasium on February 27, 2019.
Once in the playoffs the team was booted out in a 72-60 first round loss to Cuesta College on February 27th. The Lancers however did end a four year playoff drought.
“We didn’t go into the playoffs playing our best basketball,” head coach Michael Swanegan said.
The Lancers suffered many injuries throughout the season, they lost their whole starting backcourt.
“[When] we look back on the season after some late injures, we lost our starting point guard in the second half of the season,” Swanegan said. We lost our number two guard about a month into the season… the point guard is the leader of the team, when you lose leadership from your team it takes away from team.”
Sophomore Chris Blount averaged a team high 13 points per game and 8.3 rebounds on the season. Fellow sophomore Jordan Simpson lead the team in blocks averaging 3 blocks per game. The assists leader was freshman Kristion Courseault with 3.5.
Josiah Woods draws the foul agianst a Cuesta defender on Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at the Hutto-Patterson Gym.
“I had set a goal to be first-team all conference, and I accomplished that. And another goal was to make the playoffs and we did that,” Blount said.
“There’s a difference between returners and starters, in terms of starters that are returning next year…maybe one,” coach Swanegan said. The rest of the guys are gonna have to bust their butts to get where these guys were this year.”
“Keep working hard, listen to the coaches they have a lot of good things to say about the game and what its gonna take to get you successful. Listen to them and take their advice.” Blount said when asked about what advice he had for the few returning players next year.
“The goal next year is to definitely be a captain, and to be one of the best players on the team,” freshman guard Patric Panoosi said. “I’m gonna be more prepared and focused… we should be ready it just about hard we work in the offseason.’’
The Lancers look forward to the 2019-2020 season with a new young team with hopes of taking the experience of this past season and building off of it by going deeper into the playoffs and potentially bringing a championship to Pasadena.
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