Pirates Race Past SBCC

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL:  The Ventura women's basketball team took a commanding first half lead and shot the lights out in the second, turning the lights out on Santa Barbara City College 88-44 Wednesday night at the SBCC Sports Pavilion. Lisa Marie Sanchez broke through with 22 points and seven assists while Adrianna Vega hit five 3-pointers, finishing with 17 points and four assists for the Pirates (19-3, 4-0). Cynthia Hernandez netted 15 points with three assists and four steals and Brooke Dixon had a solid defensive effort to go along with 15 points, nine rebounds, and three assists. Meanwhile Adrianne Sloboh led a 41-22 VC advantage on the glass with 15 boards.

After Sanchez took the opening tip to the hoop for a lay-up, the VC offense had trouble finding a groove early. Fortunately, so did Santa Barbara's. The Vaqueros tied the score at 2-2 with a bucket at the 19:02 mark, but would not score again for nearly 10 minutes. Meanwhile, the Pirates, slowly began building a lead. Hernandez's four-point play with 9:56 on the clock gave Ventura a 14-2 advantage, and helped ignite the engines. Vega followed with a triple, followed by free throws from Sanchez, a bucket by Dixon, and another trey from Hernandez. All the while, the Pirate defense held fast, dominating the glass and holding SBCC to just 11 points in the first 20 minutes. Ventura led at halftime 32-11, despite connecting on just 32 percent of their 28 field goal attempts.

In the second half, the Pirates pushed the pedal to the metal, and played perhaps their best 20 minutes ofthe season. The made 71 percent of their shot attempts, a 20-28 clip, and continued to build an insurmountable advantage. The Pirates hit eight 3-pointers in the period, including four from Vega and three from Sanchez. Sloboh scored a lay-up off of a Sanchez assist at the 4:18 mark, giving VC its biggest lead, a 49-point margin, 80-31. VC cruised in with the 88-44 double-up of the Vaqueros.

Micaela Pericone-Kapp had a strong second half with nine points and Makayla Morrison played outstanding defense the entire game, as well.

Ventura will travel to College of the Canyons in Valencia on Saturday Jan. 25 for a 3:00 pm meeting with the Cougars. VC defeated CoC 85-59 on December 1 in the finals of the VC-Kiwanis Tournament of Champions, but expect a much tougher fight this time around. The game can be heard live online on the VC Women's Sports Network.