Valley Glen, CA (Men’s Basketball) -- The Citrus College Men’s Basketball team is on a roll. You can tell they are on a roll because despite shooting a season low 27.4% from the field and 20.0% from the 3-point line all while their opponent shoots nearly 10% better than they did, they still win by double-digits. It wasn’t always pretty, but the Fighting Owls kept on rolling in their 69-59 win over #13 in SoCal LA Valley.
In spite of the fact that they finished the contest colder than cold, the Fighting Owls did begin the game on a nice little roll. Citrus scored the first 12 points of the game and 18 of the first 21. Things were looking good for the Fighting Owls, but then shots began to rim out and Valley played some nice defense with 10 blocked shots in the first half alone. Valley began to creep closer and closer to the Citrus lead drawing to within four points of them at the half.
Citrus came out strong again in the second half, using a 9-0 run bookended by a Cameron Nettles lay-up and a Keith Thompson dunk on a put back that gave the Fighting Owls a 15 points 51-36 lead. From that point forward, Citrus’ lead stayed in double-digits and Valley never really threatened it.
Sophomore Randy Hunter would lead the way in the victory. Hunter scored a team high 13 points and also grabbed a game high 14 rebounds. Sophomore Keith Thompson would bounce back from a tough performance last Saturday against Bakersfield to add 12 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots.
With the win, Citrus improves to 22-2 overall and a perfect 8-0 in conference games while Valley drops to 11-11 and 4-4. With at least a three game lead over everyone else in conference and only four games left on the 2010 WSC South schedule, the Fighting Owls can clinch at least a share of their unprecedented third straight conference championship on Saturday night when they play host to Santa Monica College (10-11, 2-4). Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM.
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