The 2015–2016 Mt. SAC men’s basketball team finished the season with a record of 17 wins and 11 loses, seven wins in conference to only one loss. This, however, does not capture the totality of their season and character of the team, as they had to overcome a slow start to accomplish their goals this year.

Head Coach, Clark Maloney, and Sophomore Guard, Lamarquis Thompson, both shined for Mt. San Antonio College this year, being recognized for their season. Coach Maloney was named South Coast Conference Coach of The Year, while Thompson was named South Coast Conference Player of The Year.

In the first two months of the season, the Mounties had six wins and eight losses. This pace would mean no playoffs and the team just wasn’t playing good enough.

“As a team, we were young” said Thompson. “We started out really immature, didn’t know what to expect and we took some losses…as we progressed through the season, we grew more into a family.”

The last two months of the season, the Mounties finished with 11 wins and three losses, including an eight-game winning streak.

“We went into Christmas still optimistic that we could actually correct the season” said coach Maloney. “The guys came back with a lot better focus, ended up going on a run that put us in a position to be co-champions at the end of the season.”

Mt. SAC men’s basketball won the 2016 SCC Championship, which gave the platform for a talented player to get the recognition he deserved. “Since last year as a freshman, I grew as a player” said Thompson, who is a Kinesiology major at Mt. SAC. “We lost in the third round of the playoffs and the next day I immediately started working, improving my shooting and attacking the rim.”

The 6’3” Thompson averaged 15.8 points per game, 7.8 rebounds per game, 2.5 assists per game on 55% shooting and 37.9% shooting from three point range starting in 28 games this year.

The Mounties won a CCCAA Southern California first round playoff game vs. Grossmont College on Wednesday January 24, 76–70 at home. They were the 14th seed in the tournament, while Grossmont was the 19th seed. Mt. SAC would go on to lose the next round against 3rd seed Chaffey at Chaffey College, Saturday, Feb. 27.

Head coach Maloney summarized this season by saying “I’m most proud of us being able to overcome all the early season adversity. They’ve really grown up a lot and I’m really proud of that.”