Glendora, CA (Men’s Basketball) -- The Citrus College Men’s Basketball team showed some resilience on Wednesday evening when they hosted Santa Monica College in a WSC South tilt. It was a thriller in the Owls’ Nest as Citrus came back from seven down with 31 seconds left to force overtime and go on to a 82-78 win over the Corsairs.
Santa Monica would make their presence known from the get go. The two teams would trade the lead back and forth twice in the first five minutes of the game, but the Corsairs quickly grabbed control shortly thereafter, taking leads of nine points twice around the seven minute mark.
The Owls would cut it down to two points after a three ball from sophomore Brandon Parga, but Santa Monica pushed the lead back out 10 with 38 seconds to go and 11 with six seconds to go, taking a 34-23 lead at the break.
The second half played out much like the first with Santa Monica hanging on to their lead throughout. Citrus would make a few runs at the Corsairs, but each time Citrus would get things close, Santa Monica had an answer. The Owls were finally able to wrangle the lead back briefly with just over five minutes to go when freshman Keyon Sayles hit three straight free-throws to put the Owls up 57-56.
It didn’t last though as Santa Monica took back the lead with 2:01 to go and looked like they were going to pull away late as they went up by seven with 31 seconds to go. That’s when the magic happened.
After giving up a lay-up with 31 seconds left, freshman point guard Brandon Woods took the inbound pass near the half court line, dribbled four times and pulled up behind the three point line drilling his only three point attempt of the game to cut the lead to four.
Citrus put Santa Monica at the line, and the Corsairs split their free-throws to go back up five. Again Citrus inbounded the ball this time going to sophomore James Walker who pulled up on the right wing and buried his trey to cut it down to two with 24 seconds left.
The Owls would foul again, and again Santa Monica went one of two from the line, going back up by three with 20 seconds left. This time sophomore Nolan Abernathy would take the ball down the floor, pulling up right where Walker let his three fly.
Abernathy’s shot looked good, but hit the inside back of the rim and came back out eventually landing back in Abernathy’s hand. Abernathy dished the ball to a wide open Kerry Carter who pulled up in traffic and drilled a trey with 12 seconds left to knot the game up at 70 all.
Santa Monica would have one last chance, but their shot at the buzzer glanced off the side of the rim and the game went to extra time with all the momentum on the Owls’ side.
The Corsairs would score the first points of the overtime period, but Citrus quickly got things back on track by going on a 6-0 run that was started by a free-throw from freshman Kendrick Thomas and capped off by a free-throw from Carter that put the Owls up 76-72 with 1:56 to go.
That’s when Walker would take over the game for the Owls. Walker scored nine of Citrus’ 12 overtime points by driving to the basket over and over again burying tough contested jumpers in the paint and hitting all three free-throws in the overtime period. It was all enough as the Owls went on to win by four.
In the win, Citrus was led by Walker’s game high 24 points. Carter would add 12, and freshman Keyon Sayles contributed 10. Freshman Kendrick Thomas recorded his second straight double-double with 10 points and a game high 13 rebounds, 10 of which came in the second half and overtime periods.
With the win, Citrus improves to 19-1 overall and 6-0 in WSC South play. Wednesday’s game marked the end of the first half of conference play, and saw the Owls sitting pretty for the second half. Citrus is alone in first place and has a two game lead over second place LA Valley. The Owls will start the aforementioned second half of conference play on Saturday when they play host to Glendale College on Saturday at 7:00 PM.
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