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Issue date: 2/9/10 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Daniel Dreifuss Butrose Gowolo takes a free throw during Mesa College Olympians loss to the Palomar Comets. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Daniel Dreifuss Alex Tyrrell takes it to the hoop during Mesa College Olympians loss to the Palomar Comets. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Daniel Dreifuss Kyle Christian-Mitchell goes up for a basket during Mesa College Olympians loss to the Palomar Comets. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Daniel Dreifuss Joshua White takes a free throw during Mesa College Olympians loss to the Palomar Comets. [Click to enlarge]

The Mesa men's basketball team lost Wednesday night 84-63 against the Palomar Comets as they struggled to maintain a strong defense and scoring offense.

The Olympians (3-17) kept it close in the first half, trailing by only 8 points.

However, during the first five minutes of the second half, Palomar opened up an 11-point lead over Mesa with a score of 46-35.

The Comets tightened their defense, shutting out any offensive attempts by Mesa and began their domination of the boards with countless rebounds and continuous great offensive movements.

Olympians head coach Ed Helscher thought Mesa's strategy was to put pressure on the basketball, but the Comets shut down Mesa's defense and made the consecutive offensive plays that led them to their 21-point victory.

"They had four to five consecutive plays where we weren't scoring," Helscher said. "And when your team isn't scoring for over five minutes, they will fall behind on the scoreboard."

Mike Brown, a shooting guard for Palomar, returned to the team after playing for MiraCosta last season. He made 10 of 14 shots, which included six 3-pointers and scored 28 points in the game.

"It's important to play a team game," Brown said. "I just played team defense, firing the ball around and pushed in offense."

Brown also had four assists and four steals.

Ultimately, it was the tighter defense that gave the Comets the win. Palomar's assistant coach Brad Hollingsworth knows he has a better defense than last season.

"The defense kept Mesa from gaining more points, which allowed our team to advance offensively," Hollingsworth said. "Our offense came in and shots were converted. We had consecutive shots and played the whole court."

Coach Helscher's goals in practices for the Mesa men's basketball team are to strengthen their defense and gain more offensive control.

"Preparation for this next game involves 3 things, hard cuts to the basket and avoid too much dribbling, more defensive pressure on the ball, and more defensive help off the ball." Helscher said. "With so little time between games, we try to keep things simple."

The Olympians' next game is on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. against Imperial Valley College at Mesa.

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