TUSTIN – League-leading Cypress held off a late rally by Tustin to capture a 42-41 victory in an Empire League game Friday night.
“I’m glad we kept our composure,” Cypress coach Derek Mitchell said. “In this league, we’ve been in grind-it-out games all the time, so I think that helped us. We didn’t try and speed things up. We came down and executed when we needed to.”
Guard Brad Belshe led Cypress with 16 points. The Centurions (15-5, 6-0) held an eight-point lead going into the final quarter. But Tustin (8-14, 2-4) cut the lead to 39-38 on a basket by Hasani Shabazz with 55 seconds remaining.
Noah Maschhaupt of Cypress made one of two free throws with 25 seconds remaining to give the Centurions a 40-38 lead.
Tustin called timeout and tried to work the ball inside for the tying basket, but turned the ball over with 6.7 seconds left.
Trent Rothman then made two free throws to put Cypress ahead, 42-38, with six seconds remaining. Shabazz made a 3-pointer as time expired.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Tustin coach Ringo Bossenmeyer said. “We were in the mix as far as doing our job defensively and taking care of the basketball.”
The Tillers’ Sagel Simon scored 13 points and Haakon Ullrich added 11 points.
Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com
