Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) – Citrus College Men’s Basketball three leading scorers, Buchi Awaji, Darren Moore, and AJ Gasporra, shot a combined 68.9% from the floor and scored 54 of Citrus’ 85 points, in the Fighting Owls’ 24-point 85-61 win over West LA College on Wednesday night.
Despite the dominance of their three highest scorers, Wednesday night’s win was a complete team effort. Citrus had scoring contributions from all but one of their players on the bench, and shot 53.3% from the field as a team. They also wasted no time in getting after the Oilers opening up the game by scoring the first six points of the contest.
Although Citrus led early on, West LA would hold the lead just once in the contest, after they converted an Owl turnover into a fast break dunk, giving them a 1-point 9-8 lead with 15 minutes to play in the first half. Citrus quickly answered with a 9-0 run capped off with back to back jumpers by Darren Moore and a pair of free-throws from Kelly Johnson that gave Citrus a 17-9 lead.
From that point forward, Citrus would lead the rest of the way, and continue to build upon that lead. Moore would help push the Fighting Owl lead with another jumper, that he then followed up with a 3-pointer that gave Citrus a 17-point cushion. All in all Moore dominated the first half, playing 17 minutes and scoring 14 points in the opening period alone.
Before all was said and done, the Fighting Owls had settled in for a 20 point lead at half-time, as they closed the half with Nate Richardson dishing the ball off to AJ Gasporra who hit a leaning jumper at the free-throw line with just 2 seconds on the clock and a 44-24 lead for Citrus.
In the second half, Citrus’ lead would never fall below 16 points, and would grow to as large as 27 points when Troy Payne swiped the ball from West LA’s Tim Jackson. As Payne flew up the court, he drew two defenders his way and dropped the ball back to a streaking Buchi Awaji who threw the ball down through the hoop for a wicked dunk.
In the win, Citrus was led by Moore who finished with 25 points in just 26 minutes of play. Awaji finished right behind him with 17 points and 6 rebounds, while Gasporra finished with 12 points and a game high 4 steals on a perfect 4 of 4 shooting from the field. Troy Payne would finish with a game high 7 rebounds, while Kelly Johnson came off the bench to hand out a game high 5 assists.
With the win the Citrus improves to 26-1 overall and 8-0 in WSC South play. The Fighting Owls will take on LA Valley for the second time this season this Saturday. Citrus went into LA Valley in mid-January and came out with a 82-65 win. The Fighting Owls will be back at home for Saturday’s contest with tip-off set for 7:30 PM.
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