Coming off a pair of tough defeats to ranked opponents to open Western State Conference North play the Ventura College men's basketball team rebounded to down Los Angeles Pierce 95-90. Jamal Lewis topped the Pirates offense with 19 points. Jacob Alonzo followed close behind him scoring 18 in the win.
Traveling to Woodland Hills to take on the Brahamas the Pirates (11-8, 1-2) looked to claim their first WSC North conference victory and keep pace in the state playoff race. The Pirates have found a variety of ways to win basketball games this season, but on this evening their offense carried the load to bring home the win.
VC trailed early, but when Steven Bush hit from 3-point range at the 15:04 mark of the first half it put the Pirates on top and they never looked back from there. The Brahamas kept the game close for most of the first half, but when Alonzo and Bush connected from long range as the game went under 4:00 left in the first half Ventura went up 40-33. VC maintained their seven point advantage at the completion of the first half when Lewis hit for two points to finish with a 46-39 advantage.
The Pirate offense was long from done after their 46 point first half, they continued to push on the offensive half of the court. Alonzo completed a four point play after hitting from long range on a dish from Jalon Wilson and then hit his free throw for a 53-47 led. With just over ten minutes to play Elijah Brown put home two of his 17 points for the night to give Ventura a nine point advantage. The Brahamas were able to get as close as three points, but were unable to ever overtake the Pirates. Ventura leaned on their top scorer for the season Brown down the stretch to hold off the Brahamas and close out the win.
Steven Bush added 12 points to the Pirate offensive attack. His point total made for four different Pirates scoring in double digits and scoring over 50% of the Pirates points in their win.
With the win the Pirates will return home on Saturday Jan. 16 to take on the Allan Hancock Bulldogs for a 7:00 pm match up at the Ventura College Athletic Event Center. VC will look to even their conference record before heading to Santa Barbara City College on Saturday Jan. 23 for a 7:00 pm match up.