Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) – All year long, the Citrus College men’s basketball team has displayed a warrior spirit, never giving up when things don’t go their way. In Saturday night’s playoff game with Imperial Valley, one player in particular displayed that spirit more than anyone.
After a disappointing first half in which he made just 2 of his 9 shots from the field, sophomore Virgil Buensuceso didn’t give up. It didn’t kill him, it just made him stronger. In the second half alone, he scored 18 of his game high 26 points going 6 of 9 from the field, including a four minute stretch in which he scored 16 of Citrus 18 points helping guide them to a 95-80 victory over Imperial Valley.
While Citrus ended up winning by 15 points, the game proved to be very close from the tip, as Imperial Valley let it be known that they were not going to be rolled over. In the first half alone there were nine lead changes and six ties.
Each team would trade points throughout the first half, with Citrus pulling out to a five point lead through the first four minutes of the game, before Imperial Valley took the lead away just two minutes later. It would go back and forth like that for the first ten minutes of the game, until with the game tied up at 24 a piece, sophomore Buchi Awaji nailed a deep trey to give Citrus a 3-point lead.
Citrus would keep the lead throughout the rest of the first half, and would make their lead as large as 11 points after another trey, this time off the hands of AJ Gasporra. Despite the seemingly comfortable cushion, Imperial Valley refused to go away, going on a 10-0 run that was finally broken up by a trey by Buensuceso that gave Citrus back a four point lead.
IVC would crawl back to within two points with 56 seconds left, but Citrus closed out the half with a pair of free-throws by Darren Moore and fast-break lay-up by Jeremy Smith that gave Citrus a 48-42 lead going into the intermission.
In the second half, Citrus would come firing out of the gate scoring the first two buckets off the half on a fast-break lay-up by Ralph Monday and a jumper in the lane by Awaji. Citrus would continue to establish a strangle hold on their lead, leading by as much as 12 points with 14:01 to play after another jumper by Awaji made the score 63-51.
Imperial Valley would rally again however, and pull back to within 7 points of the lead, with 11:32 to play. That’s when Buensuceso’s warrior spirit kicked in. Buensuceso kicked off his impressive run by making the back end of his free-throw attempts to push the Citrus lead back to 8 points.
Valley would answer with a free-throw of their own, and after a missed jumper on the other end by Citrus’ Monday, Buensuceso stole the ball from Valley’s Milton Watts and went the other way to hit a jumper from 10 feet out. Valley would try to keep pace with the Owls with a dunk in the lane by the IVC’s Pete Johnson, but Buensuceso quickly answered with another trey pushing the Citrus lead back to double-digits.
Buensuceso continued his hot-streak, responding to another IVC jumper with his second straight three pointer, with his streak only being broken up by Citrus’ Moore hitting a leaner in the lane. After Valley got a lay-up by Watts, Buensuceso hit his second pair of back to back three pointers, these within 30 seconds of each other to push Citrus’ lead to 15 points.
From that point forward, Citrus’ lead never fell below double digits, as they advance to the third round of the Southern California playoffs. Bolstered by Buensuceso’s game high 26 points, the Fighting Owls picked up their 31st win of the season. In the win, Citrus’ Buchi Awaji added 17 points and a team high 8 rebounds, while AJ Gasporra and Nate Richardson each chipped in with 13 and 11 points respectively.
Waiting for the Owls next week is LA City College out of the South Coast Conference. LA City is the 8th seed in the SoCal Playoffs and is coming off an 81-77 victory over Riverside City College on Friday night. Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM on Saturday March 8th, in the Owl’s Nest.