Dan Sandoval Corsair

SMC's Ken Franklin (16) rushes past an East L.A. player (47) on a returned punt on Saturday, Nov. 15, at Weingart Stadium in East L.A. Coming to his aid are fellow teammates Chris Myrick (30) and Orrete Jones (13).

• Corsairs extends overall record to 2-1, after their defeat over L.A. Trade Tech College .

Two days after their first loss of the season, the Santa Monica College men's basketball team bounced back with a 75-58 win over the L.A. Trade Tech College Beavers. The Corsairs outplayed Trade Tech in the second half, outscoring them 38 to 21 after going into the half tied at 37.

Trade Tech's Micah Black provided the last- minute spark for the Beavers prior to the half, scoring five points in the last 25 seconds of the half.

SMC did a much better job of fighting for rebounds and of attaching the hoop in the second half, while Tech settled for outside jumpers and struggled from the free throw line.

The Beavers jacked up a whopping 15 three-point attempts in the second half, converting on only one of them. They also shot 0/7 from the free-throw line.

The Corsairs, on the other hand, made 9 of 11 from the charity stripe in the second half after only getting three attempts in the first.

"In the first half there were only three fouls against us," Head Coach John McMullen said, "which means we were very unaggressive."

But overall, "I think it was a good game for us," he said. "We're still getting acquainted with each other, and it's hard for us to get in a flow. But I liked how we finally got to the hole in the second half."

SMC traded baskets with Trade Tech for the first eight minutes of the second half but then went on a 9-0 run that gave them a 59-48 lead, which Tech was never able to fight themselves out of.

"When we kind of took off on them, a lot of it was Jonathan Smith," McMullen said.

He got the Corsairs rolling by "pushing the ball up court," according to the coach. Smith finished with 9 points in both the half and the game, on 4/7 shooting from the field and 1/1 from behind the ark. McMullen was also happy with the "good play off the bench from Justin Goins and Dexter Manley." Both players finished in the double digits. Goins led the Corsairs with 15 points, and Manley had 13. Raleigh Harper was the third Corsair to score in the double digits, finishing with 12.

The Beavers also had three scorers in the double digits: Louis Hamilton and Robert Dorsey with 13, and Jerry Jackson with 11, who collectively only scored 13 points in the second half.

"Defensively we did change a little bit of our approach," McMullen said about the second half.

"Number 23 [ Hamilton ] was the guy we had to stop, because he was really hurting us. And their offensive boards were hurting us. So we had to do a better job of getting up on the boards, and when we finally started jumping with them, that's when we ended up getting fouled."

To stop Hamilton , the Corsairs only had to send him to the line, where he shot 0/5 in the half and 1/7 in the game. Overall, the Corsairs shot 12/14 from the free throw line and 29/63 from the field, compared to the Beavers' 3/14 from the free throw line and 25/67 from the field. From the three-point range the Corsairs ended with 5/11 compared to the Beavers 5/22.

SMC's next game is on Friday against L.A. Harbor at Harbor, and then they come home on Tuesday to face L.A. Southwest College.