Rams win close call against Foothill

The Fresno City College men’s basketball team continued their dominance this season, finishing with a 28-2 overall record: 10-2 in Central Valley Conference going on a 20 game winning streak during the season. FCC won their 12th straight CVC title. They were led by co-players of the Year, sophomore guards Chris Ashanti and Rich Tesmer. Head Coach Ed Madec received coach of the year. FCC will open the playoffs as the No. 2 seed; they will face  Foothill College.

FCC is looking to avenge the early exit from the state playoffs last season when they were knocked out last season by 15th seed Merritt College 100 – 83. “We know we can’t take this team lightly, last year FCC went through it and got bounced out of the playoffs in the first round,” said freshman guard  Dejon Burdeaux.

“The season was a shock, I know the program has a history of winning. Coming here as a freshman is paying off. We’ve become a brotherhood, bonding throughout the season, we see each other as brothers. The three sophomores have taken us in like family,” said Burdeaux.

The FCC Rams played in front of their biggest crowd of the season. They opened up their playoff run with a battle against Foothill and head coach Matt Stanley, who Coach Madec has a great relationship with. “Foothill is a great team that’s getting better every game. Stanley and I have a great relationship and he will have this team ready to play,” said Madec.

“Every team in the playoffs is tough, there is reason they are playing,” said Madec. Foothill came to play against  FCC, they played the Rams too tough. The game opened up with a Colton Hafey three and an alley-oop pass to Brian Chambers who laid it up to give FCC an early 5-4 lead.  Despite the hot start by the Rams in a packed gym, Foothill made 11-4 for run capped off by a 3-pointer by Kyle Toth of Foothill. Madec called timeout and subbed in Richie Tesmer who made three big plays in the first half, a 3-pointer to stop Foothill from gaining a bigger lead on  them, a layup to get the deficit to 2 before the half, and a big steal and pass to Chris Ashanti who tied the game before half with a layup. The game went into halftime 30-30.

Coming out of the half, FCC chose to attack the Owls and got to the free throw line for 28 attempts, converting 22 of them.  Burdeaux came through going 12-13 from the free throw line finishing the game with 18 points which also led the Rams on the night. “Dejon has been big all season, directing our offense. He’s our clock guy and we trust with the ball in his hands,”  said Madec.

Foothill and FCC battled throughout the second half as Foothill took a 47-41 over the Rams with 11:30 left to play. They switched to a full court pressure which  allowed for opportunities to get steals. FCC capitalized as they fought back to a 47-46 game.  After 4 straight points from Burdeaux, the Rams only trailed by 1. They went to a full court press Rich Tesmer came up with the steal and took it in for a layup that made the game a 57-56 rams with 3:35, and they never looked back.

“For our sophomores and our program it was a great win, I have a lot of respect with Foothill College. We played hard, we had to earn this win tonight, and that’s the point of playoff basketball,” said Madec after the win.

FCC will face N0.7 Cosumnes River (23-8, 10-4) in the Norcal Regional Quarterfinals May 5 at FCC Gymnasium.