The Ventura College women’s basketball team has now learned that the Moorpark College Raiders are a team to be reckoned with.
What has been the annual Barbeque Fundraiser game that showed the prominence of Pirates’ basketball turned into a team fighting Western State Conference supremacy, as the Pirates survived another scare in a 72-63 victory over the Raiders Saturday night at the Ventura Athletic Center.
The Raiders kept up with the Pirates’ up-tempo offense, playing a match-up zone to try and slow down the Pirates’ attack.
Although undersized, the Raiders dominated the boards, with the advantage of having quick wing players that proved to be faster than the Pirates’ front line.
The game was a close one from the start, as the Pirates did not gain the lead until Amanda Padilla’s three-pointer gave the Pirates a 14-12 advantage early on.
Padilla had 20 points on the night, including 15 in the first half. The Pirates’ guard Chanelle Brennan led the team with 24 points on the night.
A 12-2 run over a span of five minutes gave the Pirates (25-1, 8-0 WSC) a 26-19 advantage with just under 7 minutes to play in the first half.
Down by as many as thirteen, the Raiders (12-12, 5-4) cut the lead to single digits before going into halftime down 37-27.
Despite quickly jumping out to a 43-29 lead in the second half, the Raiders did not quit and proved they could contain the Pirates’ fast-paced offense.
A Raiders lay-up cut the Pirates lead to one point at 63-62 with under three minutes left, the closest the Raiders would ever get.
Pirates forward Kris King added a bucket to push the lead to 66-62, and a costly traveling violation by Raiders guard Nanice Kollee with a minute left proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Padilla, who had 5 of her 15 points in the second half, believed more team involvement on the scoring end was key for the Pirates’ victory tonight.
“I don’t like to score all the time, and if I am open I will shoot it,” she said.”So getting my team involved in the second half was good.”
The Pirates were given all they could handle in the WSC rivalry, but Padilla believed that they are comfortable in pressure situations.
“We know what pressure’s like and we can handle it,” she said.
