Wednesday, Nov. 14, Rio Hondo men’s basketball faced off against Santa Ana College at home and lost by 10 points at the final buzzer. The Roadrunners started off strong against the SAC Dons with a few new faces out on the court as the starting five. The fresh blood didn’t help the Roadrunners with the final outcome as they fell to the same patterns from the previous home game.

Rio Hondo put pressure on the Dons with an aggressive defense but spread their men too far leaving large holes for Santa Ana to break the defense and fight their way into the paint. The first half of the game Rio was able to keep up with the Dons with some big 3-point shots made by freshman guard Kevin Sandoval coming off the bench with a big impact for the team. Though Rio worked hard to put up numbers, the team still struggled offensively scoring less than 50 percent in field goal average with a 41.2%, and a 34.2% for the attempted 3-pointer.

The first half of the game ended tied at 41-41 but Rio Hondo’s game play started to fall after the start of the second. Santa Ana capitalized on Rio’s mishandled ball control and used the turnovers in their favor. Three minutes into the half SAC pulled ahead and led 49-45 and the Roadrunners couldn’t push back.

Rio Hondo started to pull back more with no rebounds offensively or defensively giving SAC the opportunity to put more points up on the board. With 8 minutes left, Rio was trailing the Dons by 14 points at 50-64. The Roadrunners started to crumble with the pressure and the ball handling became very individual with multiple opportunities missed during their offensive plays.

Coach Johnson called a full timeout in hopes to regroup his players and slow the fast pace of the game. After the timeout the Roadrunner basketball team came out with a different spirit. Rio started to play more aggressively and started to successful rebound against the Dons. This change in the game led to a comeback by Rio Hondo but it came too late into the half. The game closed out with Rio scoring 40 points in the half and Santa Ana leading at 50. The final scored ended with Rio just shy of the tie or a win at 81-91.