The Ventura College men's basketball team found itself in the thick of the Western State Conference North title race entering the final two games of play. With a 109-63 win for the Pirates over Santa Barbara, VC positioned itself for a potential conference title. Topped by Timmy Garcia and his 26 points on 8-12 shooting from 3-point range the Pirates reached triple digits for the second time this season.
VC (18-9, 8-3) honored their sophomore class prior to the start of the game, but there was no jitters for the Pirates in their final regular season home game of the season. Ventura jumped out to an early advantage up 20-14 at the 11:23 mark in the first half. This was the closest the Vaqueros found themselves to a tie game as VC pulled away quickly. Over the next seven minutes of game play the Pirates went on a 23-6 run with five 3-pointers to take a 43-20 advantage. Garcia was huge for the Pirates during this stretch burying three from long range as the Pirates went into the half with a commanding lead over SBCC 58-28.
The second half was more of the same for the two teams as Ventura remained on fire from the field. Their advantage spread to 74-38 at the 13:43 mark. VC continued to receive offensive contributions from several players and by the 7:52 mark the game was pretty much decided as they neared a 50 point lead over the Vaqueros at 91-49. Ventura went over the 100 point mark at the 3:18 mark and completed their scoring when Garcia again drained a 3-pointer off a Cordel Hankerson assist to reach their season high total of 109 points.
Ventura saw four different players score in double digits topped by Garcia. Chris Thompson a sophomore playing his final home game for the Pirates poured in 18 points. Elijah Brown another Pirates sophomore scored 13 points and added five assists. Jacob Alonzo hit for 12 points and pulled down six rebounds.
The win puts the Pirates in a first place tie at 8-3 with Moorpark College heading into the final game of the regular season. Ventura needs a win over rival Oxnard College on Saturday Feb. 20 at Oxnard and a loss from Moorpark to claim an outright title. If both teams win they will finish with a share of the WSC-North title. Tip off for the final game of the regular season is set for 3:00 pm.