SAN MARCOS– Men’s basketball picked up a massive 57-48 win over San Diego Mesa, snapping their three-game losing streak.
After three straight losses, the Palomar men’s basketball team secured their seventh conference win. This was their second matchup of the season against San Diego Mesa. Palomar won the first matchup on Jan. 2 by a final score of 67-62.
Freshman guard Isaiah Pomare led the Comets in scoring with 14 points and seven rebounds.
Pomare said postgame, ” I feel great. It doesn’t matter what the stats are; we got the job done. That’s all that matters; a win is a win.”
“We gotta understand the jobs not finished, we’re still trying to get conference and make it into playoffs,” said Pomare.
Freshman guard Avant Gilmore scored 10 points, six rebounds, and one steal. Gilmore was a defensive force for the Comets, making plays happen throughout the game.
“I’m always trying to guard the best player. When I’m guarding my teammates at practice, they push me, so it’s really just practice,” Gilmore said.
“Just a great feeling. We competed today, but it was a little shaky, but we did pretty good,” Gilmore added.
The Comets ended the first half 31-17. However, they started the second half extremely slowly. Mesa opened the second half on a 16-0 run before Palomar scored its first bucket.
Head Coach Ivan Patterson said postgame, “Honestly, nothing special; I preached to them to go back to what we’re doing in the first half, go back to what was giving us success… I don’t like being in those positions you know we gotta grow from this game.”
Avant Gilmore credited the early second-half struggles to the, “ball movement. We were being a little selfish with the ball. I think if we move the ball, we become the hardest team to guard.”
“In those moments, you gotta realize that basketball is a game of runs; they got their run, and I knew that we were going to get ours,” said Coach Patterson.
Despite the struggles throughout the game, the Comets walked away with the win. Coach Patterson said, “I appreciate every win. God is good even when we’re not.”
With the win, Palomar improves to 14-8 on the season and 7-3 in conference play. The Comets sit in fourth place in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference standings and still have the opportunity to win the conference and make playoffs.
Palomar plays their next home game on Feb. 12 at 5 p.m.