Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) – The Citrus College men’s basketball team continued their march towards history as it moved to the 2nd round of the SoCal Playoffs with a 68-57 win over Cuesta College Wednesday night. The Owls used strong presence on the boards to pull out the 11 point victory.
The Owls kicked off the first half by riding the hot hands of Buchi Awaji and Aaron Arango who scored 12 of the first 14 points. In the first 5 minutes the Owls jumped out to a 7 point lead after Deonta Black hit a jumper in the lane.
With 11 minutes to play, the Cougars battled back crawling to within 1 point of Citrus, but the Owls went on an 11-0 run capped off by Aaron Arango’s third straight 3-pointer to give Citrus a 12 point advantage with 7 minutes to play.
Cuesta proved to be pesky however, and got back to within in 3 before Kevin McCaughey nailed 2 free-throws to push the Citrus lead back to 5 points where it would stay until the end of the 1st half. Going in the locker room the Fighting Owls had a 29-24 advantage on 34.3% shooting from the field. More importantly however was their defense as they held the Cougars to just 34.8% shooting from the field.
In the 2nd half Cuesta got a quick three from Casey Blair to kick-start their game and move to within in 2 points of the Citrus lead. The Fighting Owls took off once again though as another Aaron Arango three played a major role, this time kick-starting a 12-0 run by the Fighting Owls.
Up by 13 with 12:04 to go, the Fighting Owls continued to the play their game and held Cuesta at bay. The Cougars would threaten at 6:37 mark; coming to within 6 points of the Fighting Owl’s lead, but once again Arango came through and hit a jumper to push the lead back up to 8. The Owls lead would never fall below 8 points the rest of the way.
Cuesta would put plenty of pressure on the Fighting Owls down the stretch, but Citrus hit 9 of their 11 free-throws in the final 2 minutes of the game to seal the deal. For the game Citrus shot 38.1% from the field and just 22.7% from beyond the 3-point arc, while out-rebounding Cuesta 47-32. The rebound margin proved to be crucial as Citrus out-scored the Cougars 13-2 on second chance points.
In the win Buchi Awaji led all scorers and rebounders with 19 points and 10 boards, while Aaron Arango poured 16 points on 4 of 9 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. The only other Owl in double figures was Deonta Black who scored 10 points on 5 of 8 shooting from the field.
With the win the Fighting Owls advance to the 2nd round of the Southern California playoffs. Citrus will travel to take on San Bernardino Valley College, the #3 seed, on Saturday February 24 for a 7:00 pm tip-off. This will be the second meeting between these two squads this year, as the Fighting Owls recorded a 20 point, 82-62 win over the Wolverines earlier this year.