Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) -- The Citrus College Men’s Basketball, ranked #3 in the State and #2 in SoCal, continued to impress on Wednesday night as they absolutely dismantled West Los Angeles College. The Fighting Owls did it on both ends of the floor, shooting 48.6% from the floor, all the while holding the Wildcats to a season low 39 points, in an 88-39 victory for Citrus.
West LA hung with Citrus for a little while on Wednesday night, even grabbing the lead on three separate occasions in the first seven minutes of the game. The Wildcats last lead would come around the 13:47 mark when they went up by two after a jumper by Rodney Blackmon.
That’s when Citrus put on the afterburners going on a 16-0 run that was capped by a pair of three pointers off the hands of Jose Rivera and Darin Stewart that made the score 29-15 in favor of the Fighting Owls. From the time West LA lost the lead until the end of the half, Citrus held the Wildcats to just seven points. In that same span Citrus scored 37 points, as they took a comfortable 50-22 advantage into the break.
Nothing much changed in the second half, as the Fighting Owls’ largest lead of the night was the 49 points that separated the two teams at the end of the contest. Citrus held West LA to just 17 points total in the second half, and the night was best summarized by a play that took place with just over nine minutes to go.
After Keith Thompson blocked a West LA shot on the Wildcats end of the floor, Cameron Khoury gathered in the rebound and passed the ball up to Darin Stewart who was running the floor. Stewart made his way up the right side of the court where he had only one defender to beat. Stewart pulled up and passed the ball to the left block where Keith Thompson came flying in, gathered in the pass, and dunked the ball emphatically through the basket for one of the best alley-oops of the year.
In the win, Citrus had a number of great nights from a number of different contributors as six players finished with at least 10 points. Thompson would lead all scorers with 14 points, while both De’Andre Haskins and Jerry Santos each chipped in with 13 points. Cameron Nettles would pull down a game high 12 rebounds, and fellow front court mate Cameron Khoury grabbed a season high 10.
With the win, Citrus improves to 25-2 overall and 11-0 in WSC South play. The Fighting Owls have one regular season contest left in the year as they travel North to take on Canyons College (13-13, 5-5). Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM on Saturday.
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