No, not the weather.

The men’s basketball team at Santa Monica College were defeated again in Glendale. They are now 1-7 in the conference.

You could hear the disappointment in the way they talked after the game. “We work so hard but can’t seem to win one,” said Kris Mehdipour.

He is right. The Corsairs play hard and are competitive. They lead by as many as four points early in the game. In fact, in three fourths of the game the Vaqueros average lead was only 5.4 points with a high of 11 points. A 5.4 point deficit is hardly insurmountable.

The difference in the end, however, was scoring. In the last ten minutes of the game, the Vaqueros' average lead would be 12.6 points, with a high of 19.

Glendale Vaqueros Head Coach Brian Beauchemin said that the key to their success Saturday night was that he had five players with double digit scores. “Santa Monica [Corsairs] has only two,” he said. The coach has a great deal of respect for the Corsairs. He said that they work hard and are good players, but it would be hard for them to win until they had more players who can deliver double digit scoring.

It makes sense. If a team has only one or two players who are a threat, then the only thing their opponent has to do is to keep the pressure on those two players to win.

Sophomore Josh Guillory led Glendale in scoring with 25 points. Markus Monroe scored a respectable 19; Michael Cotton and Peter Newell had an even 14 points apiece and freshman Dconte Wyatt scored 13. Five Glendale players scored 85 of the 90 points that night.

On the Corsairs side of the court, the two team men with double digit scores were Arnette Hollis and Rodney Hudson. Hollis had 22 points and Hudson scored 12. Kris Mehdipour and Ryan Avilez each had eight.

With five good shooters it seems logical that it would be hard for the defense to be effective because if you double team the leading shooter, all he has to do is pass to another shooter who is left unguarded.

The Corsairs played as good and hard as they could, but facts are facts: 34 of SMC's 72 points were scored by two players. Hollis and Hudson cannot do it alone. It seems that the team that wins usually draws the fowl rather than rush a shot and miss.

It appears that the Corsairs were simply out manned this past Saturday night, and once again, they looked better on the court than they do on paper. The final score of the game was 90-73.

On the season, the men are now 7-18 and they are 1-7 in the conference. They play Citrus, the only team they beat in conference, on Wednesday night on the road. Citrus is 8-1 in the conference and 24-4 overall.

It should be a good game.