Knights Win Grossmont Tourney Title; Howell, Bradley Jr. Make All-Tourney
For the second year in a row and for the fifth time in the last six seasons, the 9th-ranked Knights have claimed the Grossmont College tournament championship after getting past No. 10 Yuba, 73-70, in the title game on Sunday night. Sophomore Anthony Howell was named Most Outstanding Player and Kevin Bradley Jr. was selected to the all-tournament team.
For the second year in a row and for the fifth time in the last six seasons, the 9th-ranked Knights have claimed the Grossmont College tournament championship after getting past No. 10 Yuba, 73-70, in the title game on Sunday night. Sophomore Anthony Howell was named Most Outstanding Player and Kevin Bradley Jr. was selected to the all-tournament team.
The Knights, who advanced to the championship game after defeating L.A. Trade Tech, 93-77, and Copper Mountain, 74-49, got off to a great start against Yuba by scoring the first 16 points of the game. It was looking like they were headed towards a third straight double-digit win, but Yuba responded with a 25-9 run to tie it at 25-25 with 7:21 left in the first half.
City's Riley Japhet-Gekas nailed a 3 on the next possession, which started an 9-0 spurt to help the Knight regain a lead that they would hold onto the rest of the game.
Yuba, led by Caden Flowers' 15 points off the bench, cut City's lead down to 38-34 at halftime and then had a chance to take the lead early in the second half, but Devon Malcolm's 3-pointer was off the mark.
With the Knights holding a 1-point advantage, Logan Huston's layup sparked an 8-0 run that also included an Al Green 3, a Kailen Rains free throw, and and Anjay Cortez layup.
City's lead grew to as many as 13 points midway through the second half, but Yuba did not go away. They got back within four on a couple of occasions in the final few minutes, including at 67-63 with 46 seconds remaining, but Howell sank two free throws to put the game out of reach.
Howell fnished Sunday's title game with 11 points, six rebounds and two assists. He averaged 12 points, 4.3 rebounds, and two steals for the tournament.
Bradley Jr. led the Knights offensively with 17 points to go with three assists and three steals in the win over Yuba. He averaged 13 points, three rebounds, and 3.3 steals in the three games at Grossmont.
The Knights will now turn their attention to the Fullerton College Classic where they will play No. 2 Fullerton on Thursday at 7 p.m. They will then play No. 21 L.A. Southwest on Dec. 9 at 5 p.m. and No. 10 Citrus on Dec. 10 at 3 p.m.
All three of those games will be live-streamed on Fullerton College's YouTube channel.