Hancock Earns Playoff Bid, Plays at San Diego Wednesday

The Allan Hancock College men's basketball team is headed to the postseason for a fourth straight year. The Bulldogs received the No.20 seed in the Southern California Regional Playoffs by the California Community College Athletic Association on Monday afternoon.

Hancock (16-13), which is riding a three-game winning streak, opens the playoffs on Wednesday, Feb.26, at 13^th seeded San Diego City College (20-8). Tip off is set for 7 p.m. The winner advances to play at 4^th seeded Chaffey (25-5) in Saturday's second round.

The Bulldogs are searching for their first postseason victory since 2001.

"We knew we had to win our last three games, two of them on the road, to have a chance at the postseason and we did that," said first-year head coach Tyson Aye. "We have put ourselves in a position to represent Hancock and the city of Santa Maria in the state playoffs. It's a pretty special feeling."

Hancock finished third in the Western State Conference North Division standings at 7-5. The Bulldogs went 16-13 overall and finished conference play with three straight wins, including a 77-71 win at College of the Canyons. All-Conference First Team selection Isaiah Hicks scored a team-high 29 points to help the Bulldogs erase a 19-point halftime deficit on the road. All-Conference Honorable Mention selections Andre Miller (14 points) and Josh Varney (13 points) combined to score 27 points in the come-from-behind victory. Hicks leads the Bulldogs with 12.1 points and 6.0 rebounds per game this season. Varney averages 9 points and 5.4 rebounds. He leads the conference with a .576 shooting percentage. Miller averaged a conference-leading 5.5 assists per game to go with 6 points and 4 rebounds.

"We enter the postseason with a lot of momentum. We won our last three games in three completely different ways. We won a buzzer beater, one in come-from-behind fashion, and one by a sizeable margin" said Aye.

Coach Aye is familiar with the San Diego program. Before taking over at Hancock, he was the head coach for eight seasons at Imperial Valley, which competes in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference's South Division with the Knights.

San Diego captured the PCAC South title with a perfect 8-0 record. Caleb Singleton and Martin Thomas were named Co-Most Valuable Players of the division. Thomas, a 5-foot-10 point guard, averaged 9.8 points and 5 assists per game. Singleton, a 6-foot-6 guard, averaged a team-high 13.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Mike Scott (13.2 points) and Christian Jones (10.3 points) were also key contributors to the Knights this season. Ivan Kulkin, a 6-5 forward, is the team's leading rebounder with 5.7 boards per contest.

Hancock and San Diego played three opponents in common this season: Sequoias, LA Pierce and Cuesta College. Hancock won both of its meetings with LA Pierce (74-68, 70-68), defeated Sequoias (74-54) and went 0-3 against Cuesta. The Knights lost to Sequoias (60-58), beat LA Pierce (87-78) and fell to Cuesta (62-68).

WSC champion Cuesta earned the No.9 seed and plays at No.8 Cerritos on Friday. Ventura, which finished second in the WSC standings, received the No.19 seed and faces No.14 Mt. San Antonio on Wednesday.