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Any team from any sport from anywhere on earth has the same common goal at the beginning of a season. A team strives to play better than it did the previous season with the overall record as an ultimate indication of improvement. Even championship teams find themselves aspiring to perk up their skills following a superb season.

The PCC men’s basketball team definitely completed that objective as it ended the 2008-09 season with a drastic change in overall and conference records.

The Lancers, under the direction of third-year Head Coach Michael Swanegan, the Lancers finished with a 20-11 overall performance, a major difference compared to their 4-23 overall record from the 2007-08 season.

After finishing in last place in the South Coast Conference North Division last season, the team jumped to third place, with a 4-4 finish.

Despite finishing third in their division, the Lancers were not selected to play in the Southern California Regional Playoffs.

The decision to leave PCC out of the tournament raises concerns as the season culminates. The Lancers had 20 wins, beat South Coast Conference number one and two finishers Cerritos College and Long Beach City College, and Southern California’s top seed, Saddleback?College.

“Normally, with the type of record we had, it would have made sense for us to be in the playoffs, but due to factors out of our control we didn’t get in,” said Swanegan. “Very subtly do you a see a 20 or 21 win team not get in, especially when teams with 15 wins get in.”

Throughout the season Swanegan preached the importance of consistent play to his young team.

The strength of the conference made it particularly important to keep his players healthy to compete physically with the other teams.

“When you have a lot of kids fresh out of high school it’s hard for them to get into a rhythm every night because this is a physical level of play. You can wear down if you don’t take care of yourself at this level,” said Swanegan.

First team All SCC player Corey Caston and second teamer ChaRunn Jones both set PCC records during the season.

Caston, the Lancer’s starting point guard set the record for most assists in a season with 228 and Jones set the record for most three-pointers made in a season with 115.

Elliot Berry, another First team player led the team in scoring with 15.6 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game. He was fourth in the league in both statistics.

“I got the chance to recruit this year and bring in some quality players. My team played hard every game and proved that they can play with anybody,” said Swanegan.

Corey Caston dribbles against Los Angeles City College on Friday. (Jeremy Balan)

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