The Santa Monica College Corsairs lost their fourth straight home game, falling to the No. 7 Antelope Valley College Marauders 85-81 on Wednesday night.
Sloppiness on both ends of the floor late in the game cost the Corsairs a chance to upset the Western State Conference leading Marauders.
SMC committed a total of 16 turnovers on the night and blown layups became the blue and white's habit.
"If we take care of the ball a little bit better and make a few layups around the basket it might be a different story," SMC head coach Jerome Jenkins said.
Santa Monica opened the game on a 13-4 run as freshman guard Brandon Baker had the hot hand for the Corsairs as he was hitting three pointers from the Third Street Promenade.
However the night turned into a back and forth battle as the two teams traded the lead.
Santa Monica took their biggest second half lead at 65-58 with 9 minutes left in the game, but second half turnovers and the lack of getting stops on defense really hurt the Corsairs.
The game would turn sour as Antelope Valley reclaimed the lead at 77-70 with under 5 minutes left in the game and never returned it to the Corsairs.
"I told the guys we kind of put ourselves in that situation. We were in control but we turned the ball over and let them back in the game," said Jenkins.
The home team offered the Corsair Pavilion faithful one last glimmer of hope, as with 21 seconds left in the game freshman swingman Derrien King cut the lead to 81-83, but it wasn't enough to overtake the Marauders.
For Jenkins, the loss showed that his men could compete with the class of the conference.
"We got a young team so we are really starting to turn the corner. We've got to learn the little things right now," Jenkins said.
The Corsairs fall to 2-3 in WSC play and 7-10 overall and the Marauders remain unbeaten in five conference games and are 17-4 overall.
The next game for the Corsairs is Saturday at home as they face L.A. Valley College at 3 pm.