Cody Grossman

Staff Writer

The defense was there at the beginning, middle, and end of the game against Westmoreland County Community College on Nov. 24. Lorain County Community College used their size to their advantage against the smaller Westmoreland team. Will Ybarra used his size to punish Westmoreland. He scored many baskets in the post, and on the defensive end he blocked nearly everything in his path. Ybarra was a defensive presence that Westmoreland wished they hadn’t seen. Also playing well in the first half was Kevin Jenkins, grabbing rebound after rebound, capitalizing on second chance opportunities. Guards Matt Watkins and Ouddi Hamdan also showed up in the first half. Hamdan shot the ball well and Watkins displayed great ball handling. Watkins was able to get to the basket at will and made Westmoreland pay for their sloppy defense. The Commodores displayed terrific defense, communicating well, and overall dominated the first half. With the help of Kwevon Corn, LCCC jumped to an early lead. Corn shot lights out, scoring on just about every three point try. The score at the end of the first half was, 45-26.

During the second half, Ybarra and Jenkins made their presence felt on both sides of the ball, using their size to score inside along with not allowing anything inside on the defensive end. In the middle of the second half, Ybarra had another trick up his sleeve. He caught back to back alley-oop slams, nearly tearing the rim down. He got the crowd into it, giving all momentum to LCCC, this was their game. From that point on it was all Commodores. Andrew Bragg chimed in with more points inside. LCCC’s bigs punished Westmoreland’s undersized team. Corn also punished the defense by taking advantage of the space they gave him. Corn hit three after three, LCCC were firing on all cylinders. Westmoreland had no answer. And despite many late turnovers, the Commodores maintained control, along with the lead. They won big, 83-65.

Coach Eggleston after the game, very pleased with his team’s play today, said, “We needed that, that was huge. We lost two straight at home, so we needed that.” When asked what he felt about the performance of his big’s, Eggleston said, “I hoped and planned they would show up the way that they did. I’m happy about the way they played as a team. Today was about identifying ourselves as a defensive team.”