Using a solid overall effort, the Ventura College men's basketball team claimed third place in the We Play Hard Tournament with a 74-67 victory over Antelope Valley Saturday evening at the Athletic Event Center. Cordel Hankerson was named All-Tournament with 27 points, four rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks against the Marauders, who were ranked No. 11 in the state in the pre-season poll.
Ventura (2-1) got out to a fast start with 3-pointers by Vida Faniel and Hankerson around a deuce by Eddie Cowan. AVC came back ,however, to tie the score at 8-8 with 14:28 remaining in the first half. With the game tied at 17 with 5:34 remaining, Hankerson took over, scoring VC's next 11 points. With the Pirates ahead 28-24, Thomas Frank got into the act with his own triple, followed by another three from Hankerson. A Cowan charity toss made the score 35-26 at halftime.
Antelope Valley made a run early n the second half, closing to within 35-34, but the Pirates responded with a 10-0 run. It began with back-to-back lay-ups by Frank and Hankerson, and two free throws from Isiah Reyes, followed by a pair of buckets from Faniel. VC led 45-34 with 14:35 remaining in the game.
The Marauders pulled to within three points at the 9:16 mark, but Hankerson led the response with a pair of free throws followed by another trey from Frank to make it 53-45. The eight point margin with 8:41 on the clock would be Ventura's largest until the final minute.
Antelope Valley continued to battle, and Ventura continued to have answers. Reyes connected on a dynamic 3-point play followed by a made jumper off an offensive rebound from Deryck Harvey to make it 58-51 at the 6:32 mark. AVC got back to within three, 59-56 with 4:08 on the clock, and Reyes answered again with a lay-up from Cowan's assist.
With 2:56 remaining, the Pirate lead dwindled down to a single point, 61-60, when Hankerson connected on an old-fashioned 3-point play. Trevor LaCount came up with a big-time block on defense on the ensuing possession, leading to a fast break lay-up by Reyes and the lead was back to seven, 67-60, with 1:19 remaining. The Marauders never got closer than five points the rest of the way as the Pirates connected on all six free throw attempts down the stretch to preserve the victory.
Reyes ended the game with 22 points and Frank contributed 11. LaCount had five rebounds to lead the way while Hankerson, Faniel and Harvey all had four boards. Cowan had three assists for Ventura.
The Pirates will next travel to the bay area to play in the Jonathan Wallace Memorial Tournament at Ohlone College Friday through Sunday Nov. 11-13.