Saucedo has career night
Carlos Saucedo did it all. In the Mesa Community College (MCC) Men’s Basketball victory over Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC), Saucedo made his shots in clutch moments, sailed in multiple three’s and led the team in assists, totalling a career night for the sophomore guard.
“I feel like I performed better than normal,” Saucedo said. “I knew we had to pick up the slack from other players that weren’t here today. So yeah just trying to play my hardest
with my teammates, and that’s just how the cards fell today.”
In the 68-64 win, the game was never as tight as the final score seems. MCC gathered large leads throughout the game. When CGCC would close the gap, Saucedo seemingly always shifted the momentum back MCC’s way. Early in the first half, CGCC cut the MCC lead to two points, before Saucedo drained a shot to swing the game back MCC’s way.
“It’s just really adapting to the scenarios, and as a basketball player, that’s what you have to do you gotta be able to adjust.”
His shots led to a career-high 20 points along an almost perfect shooting night. Of his 10 attempted field goals, Saucedo made eight and landed four-fifths of his shots beyond the arc.
“Carlos played a really good game,” Head Coach Sam Ballard said. “He is a floor general, he’s smart and has gotten really good over the course of this year as a leader and as a guy that seems to understand what we want.”
Saucedo’s night came off just his ninth start of the season, but his successful offensive performance is promising for a team that lost one of its biggest offensive pieces late in the season. Rajhan Billingsley sprained his MCL, has missed the last two games and could possibly miss the rest of the season.
“If you’re a player, and this opens a door for your opportunity, you don’t wish ill. But if your opportunity presents itself, you gotta go for it, and that’s what it did,” Ballard said.
Helping with the win Forward Jok Jok was also right behind Saucedo with 15 points for the afternoon. As for the rest of Ballards team they made 44.1% of their field-goals.
MCC’s win clinches them in the third seed of the Region I – Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Division I Tournament.
