By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

College of the Canyons’ 2018-19 men’s basketball season gets underway at the two-day ‘Clash at Canyons’ Tip-Off event being held Nov. 1 and 3 at the Cougar Cage.

Canyons will square off vs. East Los Angeles College at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Prior to that, Glendale College will do battle with Oxnard College beginning at 3 p.m.

The two winners will then face each other in the tourney’s championship game at 2 p.m. on Saturday. A third-place game will take place at noon on Saturday.

COC will return three players from last year’s squad which finished as runner-up in the Western State Conference, South Division after falling to conference champion West L.A. College in the regular season finale. The Cougars posted an overall record of 14-14 and 5-3 vs. conference opponents to qualify for the postseason.

East L.A. will begin the season as the No. 2 ranked team in the California Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches Association pre-season poll. The Huskies finished the 2017-18 campaign with a 24-6 overall record and 9-1 mark in the South Coast Conference, North Division to also qualify for postseason play.

Glendale was 13-14 overall and 5-5 vs. WSC, East Division opponents a season ago. Oxnard posted a 5-14 record last season while going 3-7 in the WSC, North Division.

Canyons will host a total of 10 regular season home games during the 2018-19 season including the annual ‘Cougar Holiday Classic’ tournament being held Dec. 28-29. In all, the Cougars will play in five tournaments to begin the season.

WSC games are slated to begin Wednesday, Jan. 23, with the Cougars traveling to take on Bakersfield College to kick off the eight-game conference schedule.

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.