It certainly was not the opening game that VC envisioned. Battling turnovers and a sub-par shooting performance, the Ventura College men's basketball team dropped its season-opener to the visiting Orange Coast Pirates 92-76 Thursday night in the first round of the We Play Hard Tip-Off Tournament. Isiah Reyes netted 26 points with nine rebounds and five assists while John Williams added 20 points and six boards for Ventura (0-1). The Pirates will host LA Valley on Friday at 3:00 pm in the consolation semifinal.
The first half was fast and furious with both teams playing at a frenetic pace. The pace combined with first-game jitters resulted in a combined 36 personal fouls and 37 turnovers between the two Pirate teams. Ventura was able to get the best of OCC, however, shooting 81 percent from the foul line with an incredible 21 made free throws in the first half.
After giving up the first basket of the game, VC came back with a 9-0 run with an old-fashioned 3-point play by Williams and triples from Stephen Ntui and Williams. Ventura increased the margin to 10 points, 23-13, with a 3-pointer from Taylor Sturgeon at the 12:43 mark, and maintained the lead between five and 10 points for the next four minutes of game time.
Terrell Handy-Johnson made a pair of charity shots with 8:49 on the clock to give Ventura a 31-21 advantage before Coast scored the game's next six points. A shot from beyond the arc by Dondre Watson with 7:01 remaining stemmed the tide for a bit, but the Pirates of the South kept charging. OCC got to within two points on three separate occasions, but Reyes nailed four free throws, and Lamont Landers made another to make the halftime score 43-36.
Ventura came out cold in the second half. After Coast hit the first bucket, Malcolm Ruff hit a pair of free throws before OCC went on a 10-0 run to take a 48-45 advantage. VC was 0-3 with three turnovers during the run before Williams connected on a lay-up at the 17:17 mark. Darrell Handy-Johnson hit a jumper with 15:52 remaining to tie the score at 51-51, but Orange Coast answered with a 3-pointer to take the lead for good on the next possession. The Pirates of the South slowly pulled away durig the time remaining as VC fell to defeat 92-76 on opening night.
Darrell H-J had six points in the contest while Ntui and Watson each totaled five. Terrell H-J and Sturgeon each pulled in five rebounds.
In other tournament games Thursday, Antelope Valley edged Pasadena 64-63 and Riverside defeated Moorpark 73-65. Also, Palomar bested LA Valley 95-78. VC moves to the consolation semifinal Friday at 3:00 pm against LA Valley and former Pirate head coach Virgil Watson. The game can be seen live on the VC Sports Network.