The Bakersfield College men’s basketball team ended its final game of the season in the Western State Conference tournament by beating L.A. Valley College 60-57 on Feb. 21. Because BC and L.A. Valley were the lowest ranked teams in the conference, they played a one game tournament matchup.
BC forward Conroy Lester led the way for the Renegades in scoring with 25 points, at just 7-for-20 shooting, including going 10-for-12 at the free-throw line and grabbed eight rebounds, just two shy of a double-double. BC as a team had 45 rebounds, with 12 coming from guard Ed Daniels.
BC finished the regular season at 3-7 in the WSC and 10-15 overall, going just 4-7 at home. BC went 3-2 in its first five conference games, before dropping five of their next six, including five straight losses.
“It was disappointing,” BC head coach Rich Hughes said, when asked how he felt about the Renegades 2013 season. “We didn’t get more wins, but almost every game was close. So we were just right on the verge of getting some more victories, but it didn’t go our way,” he said.
Hughes said that the team struggled to score during games. He said there were moments where his team would look good and moments where they would have meltdowns.
“We were unable to stop the other team during those moments where we couldn’t score. Our chemistry was good. We competed all year long but just couldn’t come out ahead.”
On Feb. 13, six BC sophomores played their final game at Bakersfield College, when the Renegades played host to (5-19) L.A. Valley in BC’s final home game of the season. BC lost the game 76-72. Conroy Lester scored a game high 34 points on 12-for-25 shooting, including 10-for-13 at the free-throw line.
L.A. Valley led by 15 points with 12:10 remaining before the Renegades attempted to make a late game surge, cutting the Monarchs lead to five, with 51.1 left in the game. BC would then miss shots down the stretch, causing them to get in foul situations, which caused L.A. Valley to close out the game at the free-throw line.
“We didn’t come out with any intensity,” Hughes said when asked what went wrong in the game. “They got a lead early, and we could never recover from it, also our shooting performance was horrendous, one of our worst shooting performances of the year,” he said. BC shot just 35 percent on from the field, going 28-for-81 as a team. “You can’t win a lot of games like that,” Hughes said.
BC would then go on to lose at Citrus College 85-67, in their final regular season game. Guard R’mand Harper led the Renegades in scoring with 19 points, on 8-for-15 shooting. Citrus had four players in double figures, led by guard Kerry Carter who scored a game high 20 points to go along with eight rebounds.
Gerald Bates, Ed Daniels, R’ Mand Harp, Duncan Schramm, Conroy Lester, and Damian Robinson are the six sophomores for the Renegades who will not be returning next year for BC.