Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) -- Seeking revenge for a 76-75 upset victory back in January, the Citrus College men’s basketball team did exactly that as they blitzed visiting Santa Monica College 105-66 on Wednesday night.
The Fighting Owls ransacked the boards on Wednesday, out-rebounding the Corsairs 57-28. Citrus almost grabbed more offensive rebounds than Santa Monica grabbed both offensive and defensive, as the Fighting Owls hauled 25 offensive boards, out-scoring SMC 29-13 on second chance points.
After the Corsairs opened up Wednesday’s contests with the first points of the game, Citrus rallied scoring 12 unanswered taking a 10-point 12-2 victory after sophomore Mark Dorsey swished a 10-foot jumper.
From there on, Citrus put the petal to the metal and never looked back allowing their lead to fall back into single digits just twice the rest of the game. After Santa Monica pulled to within 6, Citrus went on a 9-0 run pushing their advantage to 15 after a pair of Dorsey free-throws.
Santa Monica would get the lead down to single digits just once more, pulling to within 9 after a fast break lay-up by Eric Bell, but again Citrus answered scoring eight straight and pushing their lead to 17 after a trey by Steven Bennett.
The Fighting Owls would eventually take a 17-point margin into the half, and continue to build on it in the second. Their lead would be as large as 42 after a fast-break dunk by Gibbs, before they settled in for their 39 point victory.
In the win, Citrus got a team high 16 points from Dorsey, while Troy Payne grabbed his third straight double-double with 14 points and a game high 16 rebounds. Bennett would also throw in a solid game, scoring just 9 points but dishing out a game high 7 assists to just 1 turnover.
With the win Citrus improves to 25-4 overall and 9-1 in WSC South Division play, while Santa Monica falls to 7-19 overall and 1-8 in conference play. Along with a loss from Bakersfield later in the evening, Citrus clinched at least a share of their first back to back conference titles in program history. The Fighting Owls can win the conference outright in their game against Glendale on Saturday night. Tip-off is set 5:00 PM.
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