Canyons Defeats No. 20 Citrus College in Regular Season Finale

In his first start of the season, College of the Canyons guard Brodric Smith's big second half led the Cougars to an impressive 79-72 comeback victory over No. 20 Citrus College in the regular season finale.

Canyons had one final chance to improve its resume for a possible shot at a postseason appearance. Although the Cougars started slowly — down by 12 points after 10 minutes of play — at the end of this up-and-down contest, COC was on top.

The Cougars shot only 33.3 percent from the field in the first half. However, COC would eventually cut into the Citrus lead before halftime thanks to guard Coley Apsay's six points and Brodric Smith's five points in the last six minutes before the break.

COC entered the half down nine, trailing 35-26.

Apsay scored a total of eight points in the first half, grabbing five rebounds and a steal.

In the second half, COC seemed poised to catch Citrus, and started with the Cougars hitting on four of their first seven shots.

COC eventually cut the Citrus lead to one at 49-48 on a Nick Howard layup with 13:12 left in the contest.

Citrus then briefly pulled ahead again, taking its lead back up to six points. But the Cougars would begin the final push moments later with just under 12 minutes left in the game.

Canyons took the lead for good on a Brodric Smith three pointer that gave COC a 61-59 lead with 7:33 left in the game.

The Cougars would push the lead to eight points. But after a three-point play by Citrus' Tyler LaCour cut the lead to five, COC's Brenden Otero powered in an emphatic slam dunk to help seal the victory for Canyons.

Brodric Smith had a huge second half for the Cougars scoring 18 of his 23 points after the break. He finished the game with 23 points, four rebounds and four assists, while playing 33 minutes.

Coley Apsay finished the regular season with another strong performance scoring 17 points, and collecting six rebounds and four assists. Apsay also hit 2-of-3 of his three-point attempts, finishing third overall in three-point shooting percentage (42.8 percent) in the Western State Conference (WSC) this season.

The victory allows the Cougars to end the regular season on a high note, finishing with an overall record of 15-12 with a 7-7 record against WSC, South division foes.