Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) – Coming into tonight’s conference contest with Glendale College the Citrus College Men’s Basketball team held its own destiny in its hand. With three games remaining on their schedule, the Fighting Owls had three tough teams, but teams they have all ready beaten. If they win out, they get their first 20 win season in 10 years, and only the 3rd in Citrus history, and possibly a playoff berth. Tonight the Fighting Owls took one step closer as they survived the Vaqueros 82-75 in double overtime.
The Fighting Owls came out of the gate firing taking an earlier lead, and never planning on looking back. The Owls would jump out to a 14 point lead at the end of the 1st half leading 33-19. In the 2nd half the Fighting Owls would keep that lead well into double-digits until the Vaqueros made a small 8-0 run beginning at the 13:58 mark to cut the Owl lead to 5 with 12:16 to play.
Citrus would build their lead back up to 9, and would lead by that amount with 58 seconds left to play in the 2nd half. The Vaqueros would get a 3 from Brandon Robnett to cut the lead to 6. Glendale immediately fouled and sent Buchi Awaji to the line to shoot 2 free-throws with 45 seconds to play. Awaji missed both shots from the charity stripe, and Glendale’s Ralph Monday came down with the board.
On the Vaqueros ensuing possession, Robert Valentine stepped up and hit a 3 off a Robnett assist, cutting the lead to 3. On the inbound Awaji would lose the ball and Valentine would come up with it, laying it up and in to cut the Owl lead to just 1 with 35 seconds to play. On the inbound, the Vaqueros fouled Phil Friesen who went to the line and sank both free-throws pushing the Owl lead back up to 3 with 31 seconds on the clock.
With 19 seconds in regulation Gerrell Finney took a jumper for Glendale and missed, but the ball was knocked out of bounds by a Citrus player, giving the Vaqueros another chance. After in-bounding the ball Valentine converted a lay-up with 7 seconds to play, cutting the Owl lead back to 1. The Vaqueros would foul on the inbound, and send Kevin McCaughey, the Owls best free-throw shooter, to the line. McCaughey missed the first, but buried the 2nd giving the Owls a 2 point lead with 6 seconds to go.
With the ball in the hand of the Vaqueros, they went down low to Jamar Eubanks who was fouled by Awaji with no time left on the clock. Eubanks would go to the line and sink both free-throws to send the game into its 1st overtime.
In the 1st overtime the Vaqueros jumped out to the lead, and led by 3 points with 48 seconds to play, and ball in the hands of the Owls. The Owls’ Aaron Arango would take a 3, but Arango’s shot fell short and the Vaqueros came down with the ball. They didn’t protect the ball however, as McCaughey stripped the ball and dished it to Awaji who sank a 3 with 30 seconds on the clock, tying the game up at 72. Neither team would score the rest of the 1st overtime, and the game would go to its 2nd overtime as time expired.
In the 2nd overtime it was the Owls who would lead as they built up a 3 point lead building upon the fiery play of Virgil Buensuceso who came in after Phil Friesen fouled out in the 1st over time. It was Buensuceso who gave the Owls their first points of the overtime driving through the lane and drawing a foul, then hitting 1 of his 2 free-throws. He also had a hand in pushing the lead to 3 points as he dished the ball to Deonta Black who hit a jumper with 3:26 to play.
After Jamar Eubanks converted on 1 of his 2 free-throws to cut the Owl lead to 2, the Owls would go on a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to build their lead to 9 points. The Vaqueros only other points in the 2nd overtime would come when Allen Major converted on a lay-up with 20 seconds to play, cutting the Owl lead to 7 points. The Fighting Owls would hold Glendale scoreless the rest of the way and escape with a 82-75 victory.
In the win the Owls were lead by Deonta Black who had a game high 23 points and 8 rebounds. Buchi Awaji chipped in with 21 points off the bench, and grabbed a team high 12 boards. Aaron Arango and Phil Friesen were the only other Owls in double figures with 14 and 11 points respectively. Friesen also had 8 boards in the win.
As a team the Owls shot 39.7% from the field and 28.6% from beyond the 3-point arc, but especially struggled from the charity stripe where they shot 60%. Defensively, Citrus held the Vaqueros to 29.4% shooting from beyond the 3-point arc, but allowed them to shoot 42.6% from the field. The Owls did out-rebound Glendale by a margin of 53-40, including 18 offensive rebounds compared the Vaqueros who recorded 12 offensive boards.
With the win the Fighting Owls improve to 18-12 and 5-5 in conference play. Citrus will have a buy this weekend before hitting the road for their final conference road game on Wednesday February 14. The Owls will square off against the Oilers of West L.A. with a 5:30 pm tip-off. The Owls have faced the Oilers once all ready this year, winning 72-53 at home.