Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) -- Freshman Donell Phifier played the role of Pied Piper on Saturday night, lulling his defender to sleep before driving to the basket where he went 5 of 5 from the floor on his way to scoring a team high 15 points in Saturday night’s 85-67 win over visiting Glendale College. Phifer was also 5 for 6 from the charity stripe, and scored 10 of his season high 15 points in the second half of Saturday’s win.
In what was arguably one of their more dominating performances of the season, Citrus opened up the contest by scoring the first 12 points of the game, and 32 of the first 38 points through the first 12 minutes. Sophomore DeAndre Haskins got things going by scoring the first five points of the game. Haskins got help from a handful of Owls as the rout started early.
Leading by 26 after a Haskins trey made the score 32-6, Citrus let down its guard just a little bit as Glendale went on a 22-7 run cutting the Fighting Owl lead down to just 11 points with just over two minutes left in the half. Citrus didn’t panic, and got a tip-in from Cameron Nettles, a 3-pointer from Jose Rivera, and one of two free-throws from Haskins quickly pushing their lead back to 17 points, an advantage Citrus would enjoy at the half.
It was more of the same in the second half as Citrus lead grew to as large as 23 points, and never fell below 13 as the Fighting Owls cruised to their 18th victory of the season. Sophomore Keith Thompson matched Phifer’s 15 points on 6 of 13 shooting, while sophomore Tom Granado ripped down a game high eight rebounds, four of which came off the offensive glass. Phifer’s fellow freshman backcourt mates Derrick Rodgers and Hakeem Washington both had strong nights, as they dished out six assists each.
With the win, Citrus improves to 18-2 overall and a perfect 4-0 in WSC South Play, while Glendale falls to 10-9 overall and 1-2 in conference games. The Fighting Owls will be the recipient of a bye on Wednesday, and will return back to WSC South action next Saturday at West LA College (2-13, 0-4). Tip-off is set for 7:00 PM.
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