Shorthanded Chargers Win in Overtime Thriller
Boyd scored a career high 34 points Friday night. |
February 1, 2008
box score
Santa Ana, Calif. – Cypress started the second round of Orange Empire Conference shorthanded without starting freshman point guard DuWayne King and freshman guard Ryan Nitta. Undettered, the Chargers avenged their earlier loss to the Dons with an overtime thriller 77-76. Sophomore guard Khalif Boyd led the Chargers with a career high 34 points including the regulation ending jumper and game winning free-throws.
The first half started like a seesaw with nine lead changes. Santa Ana came up on top with a 36-31 lead at half. The Dons jumped out in the second half taking a ten point lead. They watched their lead melt away as the Chargers chipped away tying it with 13 minutes remaining with Boyd hitting a layup. The tug-of-war continued and Santa Ana took the lead with the minutes winding down. Down five with two minutes remaining, freshman guard Sean Starkey hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to two. A couple high intensity posessions later, Boyd came out of a timeout to hit a jumper with just four seconds remaining to tie the score at 71 and force overtime. The already shorthanded Chargers were at even more of a disadvantage in overtime with four players fouled out and just five active players. Santa Ana started overtime with the lead. Cypress trailed or were tied the entire overtime until the end. With 17 seconds left and Santa Ana up one, Boyd hit two clutch freethrows to take the one point lead. Santa Ana could not convert their shot attempt and Cypress came away with the thrilling win.
Sophomore guard Eric Butler finished the day with 17 points and five assists before fouling out. Starkey ended the night with 11 points and nine rebounds. Freshman forward Devon McDonald hit double-digits in rebounds grabbing 13 before fouling out.
Cypress improves to 3-4 in conference and 12-14 overall. They have the weekend off before facing off with Orange Coast again. The last time they met, Cypress won 97-72. The two face off again Wednesday at 7:30 at Cypress.
