Pirates Claim 3rd Straight AVC Tournament Title

For the third consecutive season, the VC men's basketball team has claimed the championship at the Gregg Anderson Memorial Tournament hosted at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, defeating Cerro Coso 81-66 on Sunday. Adrian McIntyre capped his Tournament MVP performance with a second consecutive 30-point night, scoring 33 with nine rebounds to lead Ventura (9-0). Anthony McIntyre had 19 and Shulton Tobin netted 10 in the title game.

After two quick Cerro Coso free throws, the Pirates went on an 11-0 run to immediately take control of the game. Anthony Garza scored inside and Adrian Mc. hit on a 3-point play before hitting a deuce. Tobin scored off a Garza assist and Aaron Dawoodjee connected for two for an 11-2 lead with 13:17 left in the first half. The Coyotes came back, however, taking a 25-24 lead with 4:39 on the clock and VC trailed 33-29 at halftime.

The Pirates wasted little time to re-take control of the game, tying the score at 37 on a triple by Dawoodjee. Anthony Mc. answered two Cerro Coso charity tosses with an and-1 to begin a 19-2 run giving the Pirates the lead for good. Adrian Mc. scored the next 14 points for VC and Anthony Mc. hit a lay-up as Ventura led 56-41 midway through the second period. Cerro Coso never got to within eight points the rest of the way as Ventura cruised to its ninth win of the season without a setback.

Anthony Mc. also grabbed eight boards with six assists in the game with a pair of steals while Garza finished with nine points and seven rebounds. Caleb Geisendorfer came off the bench to grab six caroms while Dawoodjee played 29 big minutes off the bench to assist the victory.

The Pirates will next head to the Santa Barbara Tournament Dec. 9-11, opening with Long Beach on Thursday Dec. 9 at 1:00 pm.