Santa Clarita, CA (Men’s Basketball) – Freshman guard AJ Gasporra came off the Citrus bench to pour in a game high 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting including 6 of 7 from beyond the 3-point arc, in a 80-63 victory over Canyons College on Saturday night. The win marks the first time that the Fighting Owls have swept their season series with the Cougars since Citrus Head Coach Rick Croy took over just three short years ago.
While the Owls ended up with a 17 point win, it wasn’t easy as Citrus missed their first 10 attempts from the field. Despite their early shooting struggles, Citrus trailed only three times in the first ten minutes and never by more than 2-points. It was all thanks in large part to a tough defensive effort that didn’t allow a Canyon’s shot to be taken from the field over the first four minutes of the game, and that forced 17 turnovers in the first half alone.
With the game neck and neck over the first ten minutes, Citrus took its cues from Gasporra and sophomore center Richard Frohlich to help get them out of the hole. As the Fighting Owls trailed by two points with 11:57 left on the clock, Gasporra stepped up and hit his first trey of the night from the left wing, giving Citrus a one point advantage.
The Cougars would take back the lead on the next possession however, but the Owls answered by going down low to their big man on their next two trips down the offensive floor. Frohlich responded by making a couple of nice moves inside and flushing the ball through the hoop on back to back possessions to give Citrus a 3-point cushion.
Canyons would answer yet again, pulling to within a point of the Owl lead, but Gasporra came through again kick-starting an 11-5 run with another three ball. When the run ended the Owls would have a 9-point, 32-23 lead. Canyons would claw their way back to within five points with just over three minutes left in the half, but Citrus answered by scoring nine of the final 13 points of the half and settling in for a 39-31 lead going into the locker-room.
The Cougars would open up the second half with a 3-pointer of their own, that would cut the Citrus lead to five points, but yet again the Owls had an answer. Citrus would go on a 15-2 run book ended by a fast-break lay-up by Steven Bennet from Buchi Awaji that gave Citrus an 18-point 54-36 lead. From that point forward Citrus’ lead would stay in double-digits for all but 30 seconds of the rest of the second half, as they cruised to their 13th straight victory.
With the win the Fighting Owls improve to 25-1 and a perfect 7-0 in WSC South play. After finishing a two game road-trip, Citrus will be back at home for back to back games in the Owls Nest beginning with Wednesday’s 7:30 PM match-up with the Oilers of West Los Angeles College. This will be the second meeting between these two schools as Citrus struck the first blow with a 93-86 victory in Culver City early this year.
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