Dayveon Bates made one of two free throws with 17 seconds left to set the final margin of the Pirates' men's basketball team's 70-69 come-from-behind victory over San Bernardino Valley Friday at the Gregg Anderson Memorial Tournament at Antelope Valley College. VC (4-4) trailed the Wolverines by 17 points with 8:42 remaining in the game before mounting the comeback. Timothy Turner led Ventura with 17 points while Tone Patton had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds and Keron Bailey added 11 points and six boards.
The Pirates trailed throughout the game, falling behind 14-4 with 13:47 remaining in the first half. The deficit ballooned to 16 points, 23-17, at the 5:30 mark before VC went into halftime trailing 33-19.
Thomas Dangerfield got the Pirates on the board early in the second half, and back-to-back threes by Turner and Patton narrowed the gap to 10, 39-29, barely three minutes into the half. Lamont Landers assisted a bucket by Turner with 14:32 on the clock to pull Ventura to within 44-37 before SBVC rallied to extend the advantage back to 17 points, 62-45, with 8:42 remaining in the game.
The Ventura comeback began with a Bailey triple off the pass from Landers, followed by another Landers dime to Jelani Bell for three. Jaelon LaGard offered the helper to Bates' 3-pointer to cut the deficit into single digits before Turner answered an Wolverine bucket with two points off LaGard's steal. Bell hit from range to cut the SBVC lead to 65-59 with 4:51 remaining. Turner scored the next six Pirate points to narrow the gap to a single point, and two Landers free shots gave the Pirates their first lead of the game, 68-67, with 1:52 on the clock. Jacob Berry hit one of two free throws with under a minute left to make it a two point game, and Bates answered a SBVC bucket with his game-winning charity toss at the 17-second mark.
Turner had three steals and three assists in the game while Landers dropped three dimes for VC.
The Pirates will take on MiraCosta at 5:00 pm on Saturday Dec. 1 before playing the host Antelope Valley College on SUnday, also at 5:00 pm.