Mccowan out indefinitely for Pirates
PC travels to No.11 WHC for 6 p.m. game
Porterville College men’s basketball team received a gut-check Saturday evening in a 91-79 loss to Central Valley Conference opponent Cerro Coso when they lost star Pirate, sophomore guard Malik Mccowan, to a knee injury in the final minutes of the second half.
“Took the air out the gym,” PC head coach Rob Haynes said Monday. “You’re talking about probably the best player in conference, and if not, probably top two.”
Facing a seven-man Cerro Coso (5-8, 1-1 CVC) team, Porterville (6-7, 1-1) was en route to a comeback after losing their first-half 40-35 lead. But with the score tied and four minutes left in the game, a Coyotes’ player went up for a layup which Mccowan attempted to block, but landed wrong and popped his knee cap out of place, according to Haynes.
“That’s how we lost to Cerro Coso, [Malik’s injury] played a huge part,” Haynes said. The extent of Mccowan’s injury is not known at this time, but the Pirates hope to learn more today when Mccowan goes to see a specialist in Visalia. As of now, Mccowan is in a knee brace and on crutches.
“Whatever they tell us, we have to live with,” Haynes said. “Whether he’s out for a week or two... Right now our preparation is — he won’t be playing Wednesday. I wouldn’t allow him to play Wednesday anyways.”
The Pirates have a tough week ahead of them with two road games against two of the best teams in the CVC in West Hills Coalinga at 6 p.m. tonight and Fresno City at 5 p.m. on Saturday. As of Jan. 2 FCC is ranked No. 4 by the California Community College Athletic Association, while WHC sits at No. 11.
Losing Mccowan is huge for the Pirates who had started conference play with a 5-6 preseason record — PC’S best preseason record in at least three seasons — and a big 84-70 win over Merced (2-12, 0-2) in their CVC home-opener on Jan. 3.
“It’s going to be a bigtime adjustment, huge, because he never missed a game in the past,” Haynes said. Selected to the CVC’S All-league, All-freshman and Alldefensive teams last season, Mccowan’s ability to score and bring the team back with his play and energy has become essential to the Pirates’ wins. Mccowan is the sixth leading scorer in the CVC with 201 points in 13 games and also sixth with 15.5 points per game this season.
“Lot of these guys got to step up to the plate and I’m confident that they will,” Haynes said. “I think these guys are embracing it now because once the word spreads that Malik is hurt, I think the naysayers are going to count us out. We’re not going for that. And Malik is not going to allow the guys to be down, whether he’s on the court or on the sidelines. He’s not going to allow that.”
Carlos Angel, PC’S other starting sophomore guard, is scoring a 12th-best 13.2 points per game and is the thirdbest three-point shooter in the state with a 52.5 percentage. Coming off the bench, sophomore guard Jackson Cascio has posted back-to-back 14-point games with four three-pointers in each.
In addition to the loss of Mccowan, PC’S depth has taken a hit due to grades. PC lost 6-foot-8 freshmen Damoni Jones, who was averaging 13.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, and Brandon Thomas, both out due to academic ineligibility. Freshmen Terry Phillips and Germaine Caldwell are also both out for the same reason, but Haynes said Thomas and Caldwell could come back at the end of the month.
“We’ve done it before, we’ve been down this road before,” Haynes said. “We gotta go as if they’re not there. We can’t keep turning back looking over our shoulders, looking at the door seeing if somebody’s going to walk through. It won’t be fair to the guys that are working hard.”
Tonight PC goes up against a West Hills team that has a group of talented shooters in freshman Eric Hollinshamilton and sophomore forward Darius Scott. Hollins-hamilton is second in the state with a 66.3 field goal percentage and Scott is third in the conference averaging 17.1 points per game.
“Everybody can be beat any night, no matter who the team is,” Haynes said. “That’s one thing I love about this game. So we’re looking forward to Wednesday, see how everybody responds.”