Turnovers trouble Glendale Community College basketball in loss to Barstow
Turnovers have been a constant sore spot throughout the season for the Glendale Community College men’s basketball team.
It was a trend that continued Wednesday night.
Glendale committed 22 turnovers in a disappointing 89-68 defeat against Barstow in a Western State Conference East Division contest at Glendale college.
“It’s so typical of us,” Glendale College Coach Vigen Jilizian said. “We throw the ball away at both ends of the court and you pay the price for it. It’s frustrating.
“It’s like we are committing about 25 turnovers a game and it adds up. We try to take away things from practice and put it into the game and nothing works. We have some guys who are out of shape physically. It leads to turnovers and not executing when you need to.”
Glendale (11-8, 1-1 in the division) held a brief lead in the first half before Barstow (8-10, 1-1) got on track. Then the turnovers began to mount, leading to Barstow building a 36-28 halftime lead.
“It’s been a broken record with the turnovers,” said Glendale freshman guard Serigne Athj, who had a game-high 23 points. “We definitely need to be more solid with the ball. We also need our guys to step up on defense and that starts with locking up your man and getting the rebound.
“We went up against a team that showed they have the ability to take advantage of the turnovers and then knock down their shots. Then they get that confidence and get on a roll.”
The Vaqueros, who are 8-3 in their last 11 games, cut the deficit to 55-47 on a three-pointer by Dominic Gully with 11:37 remaining in the second half.
The Vikings then regained their composure and went on a 12-1 run to take a 67-48 lead with 8:11 to go on a three-pointer by Greg Dishman. Glendale had three turnovers in that stretch that Barstow turned into points.
“We got back into it there,” Jilizian said. “Then we had some turnovers and they capitalized on the mistakes.
“We come down the court and we either don’t score or we have a turnover. “
Glendale held its only lead at 13-12 on a three-pointer by Jordan Matthews, who registered 15 points.
Barstow received 18 points from Clay Evans, 14 from Christian Drayton and 12 each from Will Pierce and John Manjon Beristain.
Glendale got nine points from Denzel Nwanguma and eight from Jack Karapetyan.
The Vaqueros and Vikings will meet again Feb. 8 at Barstow.
Glendale will participate in another division home contest at 3 p.m. Saturday against Citrus.
