Cuesta Men's Basketball hosted and beat Coalinga, 77-69, to earn Coach Jamoni Barber his first victory with the program.  Barber was hired late in the summer and took over a program with only two returning players.  He quickly hit the recruiting trail and began molding his team.  The Cougars dropped their first six games of the season, including competitive setbacks to Mendocino and San Joaquin Delta, as well as an overtime loss at San Mateo.

The first half of tonight's contest went back and forth, although the Cougars took a one-point lead into halftime.  After the intermission, Cuesta came out firing in with 41 points in the second half, marking their best finish since November 7, when they scrambled back into contention with 52 post-intermission points in their loss to Mendocino.  Tonight, Sophomores Ryan McNamee and Corbin Rossi led the Cougars to victory.  McNamee tied his career-best with a game-high 21 points, while Rossi, a 2025 all-WSC selection, missed only one field goal on his way to 17 points.  Cuesta also received double-digit scoring from freshmen Griffyn Kapao and Brandon Petersmark with 14 and 11 points respectively.  Point Guard Aiden Pearsall-Morgan ran the show for the Cougars and scored eight points on his own, while also dishing out a team-season-high eight assists to drive the victory.  The Cougars are now 1-6 on the season.

 

Coach Jamoni Barber is Cuesta Men's Basketball's fourth head coach since the program opened play during the 1965-66 campaign. Founding Coach Don Hansen ran the program for 26 seasons before handing it off to Mike Mohler for one year.  Mohler spent one season with the Cougars and left the job open for local legend Rusty Blair.  Blair spent 33 seasons on the bench and stepped down after last season.  Hansen and now, Blair, with his induction announced for this spring, are both Hall of Fame Coaches, but all four coaches had to wait, at least one game to earn their first win at Cuesta.  Hansen opened the program with eleven straight losses, while Mohler and Blair both won their second game; although they still finished their inaugural seasons, 7-22 and 6-23, respectively. Of course, Blair also started a string of seven consecutive playoff berths in his second season at the helm.  Barber and his Cougars have 21 more regular season games, including at home versus Chabot this Saturday (2 PM), to chase the Cougars' rookie win record.

 

Don Hansen (1966-91)- opened 1-28 (1-26)- 328 wins, Hall of Fame

Mike Mohler (1992)- opened 1-3 (7-22)- 7 wins

Rusty Blair (1993-25)- opened 1-2 (6-23)- 578 wins, Hall of Fame

Jamoni Barber (2026)- opened 1-6 (TBD)