Glendale, CA (Men’s Basketball) – With the program’s first ever WSC South crown wrapped up on Wednesday, the name of the game for the Citrus College men’s basketball team became staying focused and finishing strong. While their focus waned a bit to open each of their two halves, they definitely finished strong as they put away Glendale College 95-76 on Saturday night.
The scene wasn’t pretty as they game got underway in Vaquero Gymnasium, as the Fighting Owls missed their first eight shots from the field Saturday night. With Citrus trailing 5-2, with just over 16 minutes still showing on the clock, leading scorer Buchi Awaji got the Fighting Owl offensive train rolling with one of his signature 3-pointers from the right side.
Glendale would answer with a pair of free-throws to reclaim the lead, and would even hold on to that lead for the first nine minutes of the game. With Glendale holding a slim 15-14 lead, Citrus made their move as Darren Moore’s tip-in on a missed 3-pointer by Awaji jump started a 9-2 run that was book-ended by another Awaji trey and pair of free-throws, making the score 25-17 in favor of Citrus.
Glendale would answer the Citrus run with a conventional three point play by the Vaquero’s Tulio Yamasita that pulled them to within five points, but the Owls rattled off seven unanswered points, pushing their lead to double-digits, where they would settle in for the rest of the first period. Going into half-time Citrus held a sizable 54-39 lead.
With a large lead to start the second half, the Owls went into another shooting slump, this time missing their first 12 shots from the field. Citrus’ first field goal in the second half would come nearly six minutes in, when AJ Gasporra nailed a trey off a Steven Bennet assist.
Despite failing to convert most of their field goal attempts in the opening minutes of the first half, Citrus’ lead was still 14 points after Gasporra’s triple. That’s when Glendale made their move going on a 10-2 run, that ended with back to back scores from Glendale’s Zareh Zargaryan, closing the gap to just 7 points.
Citrus’ Kelly Johnson quickly answered with a 3-pointer, but Glendale wouldn’t go away pulling to within six points of the Citrus lead with 9:40 on the clock, after the Vaquero’s Markus Monroe converted a lay-up and free-throw to make the score 65-71.
Though Glendale was threatening, the Owls never panicked. Instead they calmly took off on an 11-2 run that started and ended with scores by Darren Moore. When Moore ended the run, Citrus had built their lead back up to 14 points and were leading 82-68 with just over six minutes to play.
From that point forward Citrus just continued to build on their lead. After Glendale’s Monroe finally broke Citrus’ 11-2 run with a fast break lay-up, the Owls scored 11 straight to put the game away for good for their 11th conference victory and 17th straight overall.
Citrus dominated most of the statistical categories, out-rebounding the Vaqueros (59-30), winning the points in the paint (30-18), fast break points (19-8), and second chance points (27-8). Leading the way for the Owls were sophomore’s Awaji and Moore who both scored a team high 18 points. Awaji recorded his first double-double of the season as he added 10 rebounds to go along with his 18 points. Jeremy Smith matched his season scoring high with 10 points, and Troy Payne grabbed a game and season high 14 boards in the win.
The Fighting Owls have just one more regular season contest left on their schedule, a home tilt with Bakersfield College. Citrus will play host to the Renegades next Saturday February 23rd at 7:30 PM. The Owls took the two teams first meeting at Bakersfield, as Citrus battled back from 18 down at half-time, to knock off the Renegades 115-100 in overtime.
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