No. 23 Cypress holds off Vaqueros, 59-57

Kae'jon Barnes slammed home the game-winning bucket with 2:29 to play and No. 23 Cypress held on for a 59-57 men's basketball win over SBCC at the Hancock Home Motors Tournament in Santa Maria.

Barnes led the Chargers (4-0) by scoring 13 of his 15 points in the second half. His slam gave Cypress a 59-55 lead.

The Vaqueros got within two on a Matthew Morris layup with 40 seconds to play. SBCC's defense forced a 3-point miss, then called timeout to set up a final play. Kile Kleiner's 3-point try missed the mark with 0:01 on the clock.

Adrian Juilland-Johnson, a 6-3 guard/forward from Woodside, Calif., topped the Vaqueros (0-4) with 15 points and seven rebounds. He made 5-8 from the field and 2-4 on 3's. Kleiner added 13 points and eight boards.

Morris scored nine of his 12 points in the second half. He also grabbed six rebounds and handed out three assists.

After trailing 9-2 and 20-9 in the early going, the Vaqueros pulled within one at the half, 30-29, on a 3-pointer by Johnson with 10 seconds remaining.

SBCC outshot Cypress 44.7 to 36.7% and made 6-of-19 on 3-pointers. The Chargers only converted 4-29 (13.8%) from 3-point country and 11-21 from the free-throw line.

The Vaqueros took their only lead at 31-30 when Morris made a layup for the first basket of the second half. Cypress went up by five points on several occasions (41-36, 56-51 with 4:25 left) but the Vaqueros battled back each time.

The Vaqueros continue round-robin play in the Hancock Tournament on Saturday when they take on Victor Valley at 3 p.m.