Pirate freshman Dominik Contreras scored a career-high 32 points as the VC men's basketball team easily handled their longest road trip of the Western State Conference season with a 106-74 triumph at Cuesta on Saturday. Caleb Gilbert netted 23 points and Reese Widerburg scored 11 as the Pirates evened their overall mark at 9-9 and moved to 2-0 in WSC play.
Ventura was off and running from the start, totaling 57 points in the first half, leading the Cougars by 23 points at intermission.
They continued the torrid pace in the second half, scoring another 49 points for the 106-74 victory.
As a team, the Pirates shot 63 percent from the floor (44-70) and 41 percent from behind the 3-point arc (9-22). The VC offense also took care of the ball with just nine turnovers while the defense totaled 20 take-aways from the Cougars.
Contreras had a career night shooting 13-18 from the floor and 5-10 from three. Gilbert, meanwhile was 10-13 from the field and grabbed s team-best seven rebounds. Caleb Geisendorfer also had seven boards for VC while totaling seven points and Carter Alexander scored eight. Kai Johnson recorded seven points and eight assists and Beckham Rutherford also netted seven points in the effort.
The Pirates next travel to Moorpark on Wednesday Jan. 17 for a 5:00 pm contest between the top two teams in the conference standings.