Pirates Fall in Championship of We Play Hard Tournament.

In a rematch of the 2014 championship game Ventura College dropped a close 77-74 decision against Antelope Valley College. Cordel Hankerson paced the Pirates offense with 19 points. Dwayne Murrill and Elijah Brown both scored in double figures with 17 and 13 points respectively. Murrill picked up 14 rebounds in the game.

Facing off with the No. 3-ranked Antelope Valley College Marauders, Ventura College men's basketball team (2-1) looked to avenge their 2014 championship game defeat. Ventura was able to take an early advantage against the Marauders, but when AVC ran off a 15-0 run the Pirates found themselves behind 23-11. When Chris Thompson hit a jumper it set about the long effort of climbing out of a large deficit for the Pirates. Murrill hit a three pointer to get the Pirates to within eight points and the margin stayed the same until the three minute mark in the first half. When Jacob Alonzo and Thompson hit on back to back jumpers the Pirates were within four points 36-32 at the 1:27 mark and entered the half trailing by just six points 38-32.

Ventura came out uptempo and aggressive in the second half scoring the first four points of the half to get within two points. At the 14:30 mark Trevor Lacount hit a jumper from the baseline to tie the game at 45-45. When Murrill connected on a pair of free throws at the 13:46 mark VC was able to take their first advantage since very early in the first half. The Pirates maintained the advantage until just under the 10:00 mark when Jamal Lewis hit a three-pointer and then Hankerson dropped in a three-pointer of his own to put the Pirates back on top 61-59 at the 8:55 point of the game. VC extended the advantage to 64-59 when AVC took a timeout and responded with a 7-0 run out of the timeout to retake the led 66-64 with just 5:22 to play. Brown pulled the Pirates back to within one at 69-68 by hitting a three-pointer at the 4:00 mark. When Hankerson hit a runner after pulling in an offensive reboud the Pirates were back on top 70-69  with just 3:00 to go. Ventura relinquished the advantage and was never able to overcome AVC again eventually running out of time in dropping the game 77-74.

Ventura was able to hang with the large Antelope Valley College roster on the boards collecting 18 offensive rebounds and 26 on the defensive end for 44 total rebounds as a team. Their aggressive defense forced 17 turnovers in the game and collected four steals topped by Jalon Wilson with two. After two straight games where they excelled behind the three-point arc the Pirates continue to be aggressive from behind the arc but only hit on eight of 31 attempts. 

Ventura finishes second in the We Play Hard tournament for the second consecutive season. They will return to action on Thursday Nov. 19 versus Cerritos College at the Irvine Valley tournament.