Seven-man MC basketball gets blown out at home

The Merced College men’s basketball teams knows no one is going to take pity on it.

A season that looked like a resurgence for the much-maligned program suddenly finds itself at a crossroads after eligibility issues decimated the roster. It left the Blue Devils with just seven healthy bodies for Wednesday night’s Central Valley Conference opener with Fresno City College.

The good news for coach Bill Russell and his squad is that for the most part, those that remain comprise the core of the team with a lot of talent and collegiate experience. The bad news is if one or more of them have an off night, there’s no help coming. MC got a humbling reminder of that on Wednesday night as Fresno City rolled the Blue Devils 119-71 at Don Reid Court.

“We have to put it behind us,” sophomore forward Deonta Woodard said. “The guys we lost are gone and we can’t dwell on it. We have to come ready to play every game and be prepared to work. We have to defend. We have to rebound and we have to work as a unit. We didn’t do a good job of any of that tonight.”

Fresno City was a particularly difficult matchup in Merced’s first game with a thinned roster.

The Rams (12-4, 1-0 CVC) play an up-tempo, high-pressure style that tests a team’s endurance and composure at full strength, while making wholesale substitutions every couple minutes to keep their legs fresh.

The Blue Devils (8-6, 0-1 CVC) had planned to counter by slowing things down and shortening the length of the game by working the shot clock. The plan didn’t last long. MC opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers from Anthony Nolen (12 points) and Jose Gonzalez (11), but the Rams answered with an 11-0 run.

Fresno did the bulk of its damage attacking the paint initially and then began bombing away from beyond the arc once the Blue Devil defense started to clamp down. The Rams didn’t miss many shots from either location, taking a 55-33 lead into the break.

“I think we just got a little fatigued and didn’t stick together,” point guard Byron Brummel said. “Maybe if we’d done a better job of sticking to the game plan. We tried not to play so fast because that’s what they want you to do. They took advantage.

“I felt like we kept working hard defensively, but they had a hot night.”

It continued well into the second half as former Golden Valley star Christian Carroll caught fire. Carroll (game-high 25 points) drilled five of FCC’s 10 second-half 3-pointers as it blew MC away after the break. Woodard led the Blue Devils with 15 points.

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Seven-man MC basketball gets blown out at home."