VC Men's Basketball Falls to COS in Tournament Semifinal

Ventura college men's basketball faced off with tournament host College of Sequioas in the semifinals and fell 73-63. Elijah Brown paced the Pirates offense with 21 points, but the Pirates as a whole struggled offensively in the loss. Brown pulled down six rebounds for Ventura.

With a chance to advance to their second straight tournament championship Ventura (8-6) took on the Giants of COS at the Kirby Mannon Pepsi/Wyndham Hotel Tournament. The two teams played a tightly contested first half which saw very little separation in the game score. Ventura fell down 10-5 early, but was able to cut the deficit to 13-12 at the 8:58 mark before Josh Watterson hit from 3-point range at the 5:06 mark to tie it 18-18. Ventura was able to go on top at the 2:08 mark when Cordel Hankerson hit from 3-point range to go up 24-23 and the two teams were tied at 29-29 at halftime when Jamal Lewis went coast to coast to hit at the buzzer for the tie. VC struggled from the field in the first half hitting on just 28% of their shots, but did find some success from beyond the 3-point line hitting at 37.5% in the first half. 

The shooting woes of the Pirates did not hamper them in the first half, but the hoped to right the ship in the second half to advance to the championship game. Unfortunately, though an early 8-2 run by the Giants distanced themselves from VC at 37-31. Ventura was able to get back to within one point at 40-39, but COS quickly stretched the advantage to 45-42 at the 9:31 mark when Ventura took a timeout. VC was able to stay within 5 points of the Giants throughtout the last ten minutes of the game, but when they went to quick foul mode late in the game in hopes of catching up the plan was not successful. COS was able to push their advantage to double digits and knock of the Pirates to send them to the third place match-up.

Ventura was unable to right the ship from the field in the second half hitting on just 31% from the field, but continued to shoot well from beyond 3-point range at 40%. The Pirates eight turnovers to just four assists snapped a multi-game streak of more assists than turnovers.

Brown was the lone Pirate to score in double digits in the loss. Hankerson was the next highest scorer at eight points with Josh Watterson adding in seven points, as well.

Ventura will play in the third place match-up at 2:00 pm on sunday Dec. 20 where they will take on Western State Conference North foe and cross-county rival Oxnard College.