The EvCC Trojan Men’s basketball team took to the court, after the Trojan women suffered their worst loss of the season, it seemed like the men would suffer the same fate. With 10 minutes gone in the first half, the Trojans trailed 34-11. The Peninsula Pirates were draining three after three and dominating all aspects of the game. Especially rebounding for the Pirates, in which they led by a total of 30-13 at halftime. The Trojans have found themselves down early in ballgames a few times this year but this deficit was a whole different animal.

The Pirates led the Trojans by as many as 30 points, as it seemed EvCC was out of this game in the first half. PEC shot an incredible 56% from the field in the first half while the Trojans shot a horrible 25%. The Trojans were even worse from three going 4 for 16 beyond the arc, which buried a whole that was seemingly too deep. Dimitri Amos for the Pirates had a double-double by halftime with 10 points and 14 rebounds,  this was one of two players by halftime that finished in double figures, followed by two other Pirate players not far behind with eight and nine points. It was a balanced scoring attack for PEC, while they shot 43% from three point range. The Trojans stormed off to the locker room and you could hear screams of anger coming from the locker room as emotions were high.

The panic button would have gone off for most teams, but not the Trojans. They came out of the second half on a mission and they caught fire, scoring the first nine points of the second half. This put a lot of pressure on Peninsula, forcing them into mistakes that the Trojans continued to capitalize on. EvCC cut the deficit from 30 points in the first half to only being down 14 points with ten whole minutes left on the game clock. Derek Brown Jr for the Trojans was flying up and down the court with his teammate Quadir Williams. The two of them together was an unstoppable tandem with their creativity and ball handling abilities. EvCC went to a full court press in the second half which forced Peninsula into even more mistakes. Said Hersi was another player that was in the zone hitting timely threes, when the Trojans needed him the most. Hersi hit a huge three for EvCC, that put them down only three points with five minutes left, after being down 26 at halftime this was a miraculous comeback. However Peninsula was too much for the Trojans, keeping their composure and coming up with huge rebounds. The Pirates pushed the lead to nine points with three minutes left and EvCC would never get much closer. PEC made important free throws down the stretch that closed the door on the Trojan run. The Pirates ended up winning the ballgame by a score of 99-90.

There was some looks of frustration on the faces of the Trojans, even though they couldn’t pull this game out, it was something to build off of. Said Hersi talked about the loss after the game and how they got back in the match “ We just felt like we needed to keep moving the ball, because we are a different team when we do. It just opens up more looks for us. This was a physical game and we just had to put a body on them, we are coming back home against Skagit on Wednesday and we need to handle business there.” Derek Brown Jr was a driving force in this game with his second 30 point game in a row, finishing with 31 points. Brown had some words after their loss on Saturday night “ All we talked about at halftime was how bad we played and we came out in the second half playing good ball, I just wish we had started that earlier. After a loss like this, we just need to put it behind us and move on.” The Trojans face the Skagit Valley Cardinals this upcoming Wednesday on January 20th and look for their third league victory in that contest.