49ers' postseason ends in Fresno

The pain of this one lingered long after the buzzer sounded.

Yuba College is heading home unhappy after falling 91-79 to Fresno City College in the second round of the CCCAA Northern California Regional Wednesday.

"Oh yeah, they're devastated," 49ers men's basketball coach Doug Cornelius said from the team bus. "There's probably five or six guys crying back there.

"It's hard because this is such a good group of kids."

Down by four at halftime, seventh-seeded Yuba couldn't find a way to rally back against the second-seeded Rams on the road, ending the team's hopes of reaching the California Community College Athletic Association Elite 8.

A balanced scoring effort from Yuba (26-6) wasn't enough as the team kept itself down with self-inflicted turnover trouble, Cornelius said. Though Fresno employs a vaunted full-court press, the coach said many of the team's 22 giveaways weren't a result of the Rams' defense.

"You're not going to beat a team of that caliber with 22 turnovers," the coach said. "I think it was nerves a little bit."

Mike McChristian, Spencer Butterfield and Anto Olah all had 13 points and Julian Welch and Jhonte Simpson finished with 12. Julian Scott added 10 points.

The problem was the team "didn't do a good job" of running its half-court offense, the coach said. Adding that they "were trying to rush."

Fresno was led by Quentin Watkins' 22 points.

"A lot of them are taking it really hard," the coach said. "We thought we could win (another) game or two."