As the game clock expired, Santa Barbara City College’s David Lane’s three point shot fell to the floor after rimming out, leaving the Oxnard College men’s basketball team victorious 74-71.

Oxnard faced many difficulties in the first half as Santa Barbara had forced the issue with a full court press, causing Oxnard to turn the ball over twice in two possessions.

A strong defense set the tone for the game; at the seven minutes into the first half, the score was tied at 8-8. The strong defense was evident again going into half time when Oxnard and Santa Barbara were tied at 26-26.

Oxnard‘s Craig Lee was the team’s leader in points at half time with nine.

The second half started and Oxnard came out with a new found fire after the half time break.

Within the first 10 minutes of the second half, Marc Bajund came out for Oxnard and connected for 8 points to give Oxnard its biggest lead of eight in the game, with 13:35 remaining on the clock. In the second half, heroics shifted to Nick Molina, who put up 11 points before being fouled out.

Despite the efforts by Santa Barbara heading down the stretch, Oxnard‘s defense proved too much for Santa Barbara to cope with.

Oxnard‘s defense was evident when it counted the most.

With 2:35 remaining in the game, Bernard Burrell came up with a key steal when he telegraphed a pass that was intended to make its way inside the key. Then again, with 39.4 seconds remaining in the game, Craig Lee blocked a huge shot to keep the lead for Oxnard.

The closest Santa Barbara could bring the game to was three points at the end of the game, a three pointer that David Lane was unable to connect with at the buzzer.