Bakersfield College’s men’s basketball team got off to a good start this year with two wins and one loss in a tournament at Cuesta on Nov. 11-13.

BC beat College of the Redwoods 84-81 and West Valley College 79-61, and lost to West Hills College  82-78.

“I thought we did average, but 2-1 is a good place to start. I think we really needed the loss to open our eyes because were young and it won’t be that easy for us to put it all together,” said BC basketball coach, Rich Hughes.

“We played hard as a unit and rebounded well, but we need to eliminate turnovers and bad shots.

“It’s early and we have a lot of freshmen, but right now it’s me, me, me when it should be we, we, we,” he said.

He added that he thought they gave up too many threes on defense.

“We need to refine our defense because we gave up 80 points in two of the games.

“It’s just that they’re young and forgot the foundation of our defense.

“I thought that Antonio Johnson and Gerald Bates both did good, but I thought at times Antonio wouldn’t play with effort,” he said.

Johnson, a starting freshmen forward, commented on his and the team’s performance.

“I played pretty well and the team did well, but we could’ve done better. The last game we played we kept the intensity throughout the game, so we need to keep playing like that. We need to keep buying into what the coaches say, and we need to continue to work on our free throws because we couldn’t make them during the tournament,” he said.

The Renegades next scheduled tournament will be at Fresno on Nov. 18-20.