Missed opportunities were all that the Oxnard College men’s basketball team could come up with at the end of a 79-72 loss to L.A Pierce College on Saturday night.
OC’s Travis Gaines finished the game with 25 points and Omar Ibraham scored 20 points, but it wasn’t enough to beat the intensity that L.A Pierce College brought to Oxnard College.
“You know we have had three to four games where we’ve had a chance to win,” said Oxnard’s Coach Ron McClurkin. “We just need to do the little things like rebound and make all of our free throw shots when it comes down to the end.”
The game was played at Oxnard College’s Basketball Court in front of a small crowd consisting of mostly Oxnard fans. Oxnard trailed for most of the game, but fought to a 68-68 tie late in the second half with 2:43 left in the game.
Sadly, a costly turnover by Travis Gaines, which would have tied the game at 70, was called when he mishandled the ball and it was lost out of bounds. It was a mistake that allowed Pierce College to surge ahead on an 11-4 run in the last two minutes of the game.
At halftime the score was 43-32 with Pierce College leading and the Condors were down by 11 points. When Oxnard came back out in the second half they turned up the heat and played much better offense and defense than in the first half.
Oxnard players gave Pierce College a run for their money when they brought down the lead to two with a Spencer Travis steal and jam at the end to bring the score to 54-52.
The audience felt the game’s force when Oxnard College’s Joseph Mata and Pierce College’s Duane Hicks exchanged heated words during the first half. Later in the second half, a technical foul was called on Julio Marshall from Pierce College, after making a three pointer for trash talking to an Oxnard player. The whole crowd yelled in response of the technical foul by telling the refs to take him out of the game in hopes of giving OC a chance to win.
“We have a good young team that consists of mainly freshmen,” said McClurkin. “I believe we can beat any of these teams that we face. It’s just that we have to stop beating ourselves up and keep our morale up.”
Oxnard next faces Allen Hancock College away on Wednesday, Feb. 1, followed with a bye the week of Feb. 4.
