Cuesta College men’s basketball team earns first round bye in regional playoffs

The Cuesta College men’s basketball team came within an overtime loss in its final game of winning a share of the Western State Conference North title.

On Monday, the Cougars (22-9) were rewarded for a strong regular-season showing with a first-round bye in the California Community College Athletic Association regional playoffs.

Cuesta received the 11th seed in the SoCal Region, and will travel Friday to Fullerton College (21-7), which earned the sixth seed after finishing tied for second in the Orange Empire Conference.

The Cougars finished third in the WSC-North, but an overtime loss to Moorpark in the final game of the season cost them a share of the title. Moorpark and Ventura finished as co-champs. Cuesta had put themselves in a strong position to win the conference title, sitting in first place (6-0) at the midway point of the season, but the Cougars went 2-4 in the second half.

If Cuesta wins Friday, it will face the winner of the game between third-seeded Chaffey College (22-6) and the winner of Wednesday’s opening-round game between Mt. San Antonio and Grossmont.

Led by Roberto Mantovani, who at 10. 8 rebounds per game was tops in the WSC-North and had the fifth-highest average in the state, and Rafail Eleftheriou, who was sixth in the conference in 3-point shooting percentage (40.6), the Cougars are looking to get past the first round of the SoCal playoffs for the first time since 2012.

The Cougars finished the regular season as the top defensive team in the WSC-North, allowing just 69.1 points per game. Fullerton, however, has an even more imposing defense, ranked fifth in the state at 61. 9 points per game.

Offensively, the teams are pretty evenly matched, with the Cougars scoring 71.9 points per game, and Fullerton averaging 71.7 points per game.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Cuesta College men’s basketball team earns first round bye in regional playoffs."