State #3 Cerritos, #8 Mt. SAC Top South Coast Men's Basketball
It's been 12 years since the last state men's basketball champion came from the South Coast Conference. Cerritos and Mt. San Antonio Colleges are vying to break that slump with high-performance beginnings to the 2025-26 season.
Cerritos (11-3 overall) won state titles in 1968, 1983, 1989, and 1992 and would like nothing better to return the state trophy to its Norwalk campus. The Falcons are ranked #3 in this week's CCCMBCA State Top 30, a poll that uses Winning Index Percentage (WPI) as a determining tool to rate the teams.
Cerritos' pre-conference schedule has included a 6-game win streak, then a 5-game win string that was snapped on Monday in a 58-57 loss to unranked San Diego Miramar. The Falcons have key victories over #T30 Irvine Valley, #16 Ventura, #17 Cypress, #15 Santiago Canyon. Cerritos other two losses were v. #6 Citrus and unranked Chaffey, another 1-point defeat in the season opener.
Dorian Tate, a sophomore transfer who was a 2025 All-SCC North Division honorable mention while at Rio Hondo College, is leading four Falcons in double figures in scoring at 14.4 points per game. Another second-year transfer Kamaury Washington (from Santa Ana) is averaging 12.9 points.
The Falcons were a SCC South Co-Champions last season with Compton, each finishing 9-1 in division play.
Mt. SAC is the last SCC team to win the state title in 2013, the school's only crown in its men's basketball history. The Mounties (10-2) were #8 on the state poll and have put together two 5-game win streaks, one currently going. Mt. San Antonio also lost its season opener v. Citrus and have a defeat v. Santiago Canyon, but have victories v. Orange Empire squads Cypress, Riverside City and Irvine Valley in their most recent triumph, 98-84, on Dec. 19.
Dayvon Gates, a sophomore transfer who was a regular at the University of Redlands last season, leads the entire, 12-team South Coast in scoring at 19.3 points per contest. The Mounties also are paced by the return of All-SCC North First Team selection Jaidyn Simpson, who is at a 16.6 points and 6.6 rebounds pace after missing the first five games of the year due to injury.
On the Nov. 24 state poll, currently unranked East Los Angeles, the defending SCC North champions, was ranked as high as #13. The Huskies were undefeated last year at 10-0 in conference play but have hit some hard times at 5-6 overall thus far. That record is a bit deceiving as is a 4-game losing streak its now encountered.
ELAC has defeats v. all Top 25 teams in defending 3C2A state champ and current #1 City College of San Francisco, v. #18 San Diego City, in double-overtime in the team's season opener, Cerritos (74-70), Citrus, #T30 San Bernardino Valley, and #T22 Saddleback, also in OT. East LA highest quality win is over Riverside, 88-61, on Dec. 3. The Huskies are led by All-SCC First Team returner Terrence Hampton, averaging 14.4 points and 8.7 rebounds, third in the conference.
Also from the SCC North, Los Angeles Trade-Tech (6-6) has two victories over Saddleback and among the Beavers' losses are v. #14 West LA, Cypress, and #24 Palomar. LATT has a good one in Jordan Webster, averaging 16.8 points and 3.9 assists.
Pasadena City (7-6) had a big season-opening win over San Bernardino, slipped in a 5-game losing spell, and recovered by winning six of its last seven. The Lancers are led by Darrius Freeman, averaging 12.2 points while also the SCC assists leader (5.5). Rio Hondo (7-8) opened with an ugly 6-game losing streak, but since then have been on fire and a current 4-game win string. The Roadrunners are paced by Bobby Reyes, averaging 16.2 points and 5 assists.
Los Angeles City (2-11) rounds out the North, led by Kye Usher-Brown at a 12.9 points-a-game clip.
In the South, Los Angeles Southwest (8-6) hopes to challenge Cerritos as the Cougars were previously at #17 in the rankings, but dropped out of this week's ratings. LASW beat #20 Sequoias and have quality losses to CCSF, Mt. SAC, West LA, and in double-OT v. #16 Ventura (122-114). Karifala Conde is a top player at 19 points and 8.6 rebounds.
El Camino (9-5), which won just 14 games combined the past two seasons, is having a turnaround campaign and has won its last three in a row. The Warriors are led by returning All-SCC First Teamer Kai Johnson, averaging 15.7 points.
Compton (6-8) had its best season in eight years last season in earning a Co-SCC South title but the Coyotes have been off to a slow start this year. Compton gutted through a 4-game losing streak, but have been beaten by ranked squads in #2 Fullerton, #9 West Valley, West LA (twice), Ventura and SBVC. The Coyotes had a close 100-97 loss to ELAC as well. Compton is led by Ley McGovern, the Central Valley Conference Freshman of the Year at Sequoias last season, at a 14.3 points average.
LA Harbor (6-8) started out strong with a 6-game winning streak, but have since fallen into a tough, 6-game losing tailspin which have including one 2-point loss to PCC, two 5-point defeats, one to Santiago Canyon. LAHC also has losses against Mt. SAC, #10 Santa Ana, and #26 Mt. San Jacinto. The Seahawks are led by Kristian Jemerson, averaging 12.9 points.
Finally, Long Beach City (4-10) took it on the chin in a 5-game losing streak, but the Vikings are improving at 3-3 in the last six contests. LBCC also has a number of losses to ranked teams including Citrus, Santiago Canyon, Cypress, Riverside, and Ventura. The Vikings are paced by the division's top scorer Lawrence Brown (19.3 ppg), who was an All-SCC First Team choice as a freshman.
The SCC divisional schedules won't begin until later January but while Cerritos and Mt. SAC appear to be frontrunners anything can happen as they both have targets on their backs for conference opponents who will raise their game to compete v. these two current powers.
Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID