The theme in the playoffs in win and advance. The Pirates' men's basketball team did just that Wednesday night with a solid 63-56 road victory at No. 15 seed Irvine Valley in the first round of the CCCAA SoCal Regional Playoffs. Western State Conference MVP Vida Faniel produced yet another double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds to pace the 18th-seeded Pirates (18-12) while Cordel Hankerson and Isiah Reyes chipped in 14 and 11 points, respectively.
The 3-ball was very much in play in the early going as VC scored their first 12 points from long range. Thomas Frank opened with a triple, and after Irvine Valley answered with a deuce, he hit another. Calvin Young hit another trey off a pass from Eddie Cowan, and Faniel nailed a 3-pointer to make it 12-4 for the Pirates with 13:07 remaining in the first half. Faniel's triple at the midway point of the period made it 21-7 for VC.
Ventura stretched the lead to 19 points, 26-7, on Faniel's lay-up at the 7:19 mark, and again at 30-11 on two free throws from Hankerson with 4:09 remaining. The Pirates broke the 20-point barrier on Hankerson's jumper to go ahead 36-15 at the 1:32 mark, and led at halftime, 36-17.
Hankerson opened the second half with a triple to stretch the lead to 22 points before the Lasers attempted to make a run at the Pirates. IVC closed the gap to 11 points, 43-32, with 11:26 left in the contest, but VC turned back the run with a 9-0 stretch to make it 52-32 with 9:25 on the clock. Irvine narrowed the gap to 56-50 in the final two minutes, but outstanding free throw shooting by Cowan, who hit five of six charity shots down the stretch, maintained the Pirate advantage. IVC hit an inconsequential 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the final score 63-56.
Hankerson added eight rebounds to his point total and Reyes had seven assists. Cowan finished with five helpers.
Ventura advances to the CCCAA SoCal Regional Semifinals Saturday Feb. 25 at No. 2-seed El Camino-Compton Center. Tip-off against the Tartars is scheduled for 7:00 pm and the game is scheduled to be seen live on the VC Sports Network.