The Moorpark College Raiders Men’s Basketball team bounced back from their midweek loss at Ventura as they downed Oxnard College by a score of 120-101. 120 points marks the most in a single game season so far for the team in a year where they are averaging 82.8.
A high-octane offensive performance from the Raiders saw their record advance to 14-12 overall and 6-4 in conference play. Moorpark found themselves up by as much as 22 in a game that had both highs and lows.
Sophomore guard Ben Grant led the way with 28 points for the Raiders including six three-pointers and chipped in seven assists in the complete performance.
“I feel like it makes it easier on the team if I look to score first,” Grant said. “If they then stop me then I can make plays for my teammates, it really opens up for everyone else.”
A quick 8-0 run to start the game forced Oxnard into a timeout at the 18:55 mark. Sloppy play, however, allowed the Condors to establish themselves despite the Raiders lead at 17-15. A 19-8 Raiders’ run in response saw the lead balloon to 13 before inconsistent play and mental mistakes caused a 36-23 lead turn on its head. What was once a comfortable lead quickly became a 43-41 Moorpark deficit with a 1:44 remaining in the first half.
With time running down and Oxnard holding a slight edge at 49-48, sophomore forward Tim Andreolli drained a three at the buzzer to give Moorpark a 51-49 at intermission.
“We were just trying to outscore them, we weren’t really looking to play defense,” Andreolli relayed. “[Head Coach Chris Morgan] just wanted us to lock in on defense and the offense will come.”
Head Coach Morgan’s halftime speech proved to work wonders as the Raiders came out playing at a blazing pace, hitting five threes to contribute to a 30-8 run which saw the Moorpark lead grow to 81-59. The shooting display was just getting started as 14 of the next 20 baskets for each team came from the three-point line. Oxnard cut the lead to 99-90 before three consecutive three-pointers for Moorpark put the game out of reach at 108-90.
Moorpark College secured the victory with a final score of 120-101 after trading baskets at the end of the game.
Sophomore forward Mason Johnson reiterated that the coach’s message was the key to finally putting Oxnard away.
“[Coach] just said one stop at a time,” Johnson stated. “We’re gonna score, that’s not the problem. Can we get enough stops and the five on the floor were able to lock in mentally.”
Johnson added 23 points and 13 rebounds in a double-double effort along with Andreolli and sophomore guard Najeem Nawabi who each contributed 19 points a piece to fortify the Raiders attack.
Moorpark will look to win their next conference game on Tuesday night at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo at 7 p.m.
