San Bernardino Valley College men’s basketball team beats Cypress in state playoffs – Press Enterprise

SAN BERNARDINO — The San Bernardino Valley College men’s basketball team won its opener of the playoffs Thursday night, but it could come at a significant cost.

Dominique Daniels posted a game high of 19 but suffered a left leg injury late in the game when the Wolverines held off Cypress 73-55 in a CCCAA Southern California regional playoff game in the second round.

“We feel for our brother. This is our teammate and we just have to put it in God’s hands,” said SBVC center Chester Makoi. “We pray for him. We know he will be fine.”

Inland Empire Athletic Conference Player of the Year Daniels was 8 of 15 from the field with two assists and a steal for San Bernardino Valley College (25-4), which will host Riverside City College on Saturday.

“(Riverside) is a great team with a great coach and it’s going to be an absolutely amazing basketball game on Saturday night,” Brewer said.

The 5-foot-9 freshman, still in the game and leading SBVC by 15 points, went up for a rebound with 2 minutes and 10 seconds left in the second half and came down with his left leg.

“I hate to see Dom go down like that. That is hard. He’s such a great player,” said Cypress coach Andrew Alhadeff.

The Wolverines may be without Daniels, the team’s top scorer with 22.5 points per game, on Saturday night. His status remains unclear.

“I’m not a doctor (and) I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but we’re going to take it one day at a time,” Brewer said.

SBVC led 8-0 early on as Makoi, a 7-foot center, dominated the boards for the first few minutes and made two put-back baskets before suffering a hard foul midway through the first half.

Makoi returned and finished with 15 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks for the Wolverines, who have won seven straight and 13 of their last 14 games.

“We knew it was just going to be about making stops and running our offense,” said Makoi, who landed two rebounds off his season-high (16) set against West LA earlier this season

Ramiah Adedigba had 18 points and six rebounds, and Trent Goldmann had two 3-pointers to finish with 12 points. Cypress (17-13) shot just 32.7 percent from the field in his season-ending loss.

“We didn’t play well offensively, but San Bernardino did a great job. They were in our stuff,” said Cypress coach Andrew Alhadeff.

Cypress didn’t score for the first 5 minutes and 50 seconds of the game and until Adedigha came inside to score the first of his 13 first-half points on the edge.

The Chargers, who narrowly defeated Palomar 69-63 to advance to the second round, then failed to make a two-point basket in the first seven minutes of the second half.