Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) -- If there’s been one chink in the armor of the #3 ranked team in the State, Citrus College, it’s been their inability to hang on to a large lead. Time after time, the Fighting Owls build up big leads, only to see them dwindle as the game goes on.
The same thing manifested itself on Saturday night as Citrus saw a 19 points second half lead shrink to just six points in the waning minutes of their contest with LA Valley College. As they’ve done over and over, the Fighting Owls found a way to pull out the W, as they beat the Monarchs 78-68.
Things started off good enough for Citrus as they ran out to a seven point 15-8 lead after a pair of Randy Hunter free-throws with just over 13 minutes to play in the half. The lead would stay between four and six points over the next four minutes, until a three by Valley’s Chris Lenik and jumper by Jerome Lowe gave the Monarchs their first lead of the game at 21-20 with just over eight minutes to go.
Citrus would answer with a trey of their own, when Darin Stewart splashed down a three from the right corner off a Derrick Rodgers assist, but the game would remain tight for the remainder of the half, as Citrus went into the break with a 33-30 lead.
In the second half Citrus came out firing, outscoring Valley 19-8 in the first six minutes of the half and taking a 52-38 lead after a Donnel Phifer lay-up. The Fighting Owls would continue to push their lead even further leading by as much as 19 points after a Keith Thompson jumper made the score 67-48 with 6:51 to go.
That’s when things started to go South. Valley rattled off a 13-2 run that cut the Citrus lead to nine points with just over four minutes to play. The Fighting Owls answered with Hunter hitting one of two free-throws to push the lead back to double-digits, but over the foul limit, Citrus kept putting Valley at the line where they hit four straight shots from the charity stripe to cut the lead to six points. Needing a big spark, sophomore Jose Rivera drilled a huge three to push lead back to nine, and effectively ending Valley’s momentum.
With the win, Citrus improves to 16-2 overall and 2-0 in conference play, while Valley falls to 8-8 and 1-1 in WSC South play. Citrus will continue their 2010 conference schedule with a trip to Santa Monica (8-8, 0-1). Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM on Wednesday evening.
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