Moorpark Puts Its John Hancock on Allan Hancock, 64-43

Let Allan Hancock Coach Bob White explain his team’s Western State Conference opener against Moorpark Thursday night.

“They drilled us,” he said.

The Raiders certainly did, routing Hancock, 64-43, to lift their overall record to 12-4 in the conference opener for both teams.

“Our objective coming into the game was to keep the score close,” White repeated. “But they just drilled us.”

The Raiders can do that when they’re healthy, and after a brief hiatus from consistent play, they are back. Big.

“We had three good practices this week,’ Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist said. “And I think we played excellent tonight. Dave Inemer played a great game on the inside. I think he got his hands on at least six or seven shots, and when they went in to the zone we were able to get the ball to Danny Berryman who made a couple of layups.”

With 25 points, Berryman was the game’s leading scorer. Teammate Danny Camp added 15 and Steve Abraham scored 11.

The Bulldogs had only one player in double figures, Lorenzo Regueira with 10. The loss dropped Hancock’s overall record to 6-7. The Bulldogs were playing without their leading scorer, Tony Regueira, who has left the team indefinitely to be with his ailing father in Florida. Regueira was averaging 23 points a game.

After playing tentatively late in December, mostly because of illness and injury, the Raiders, Nordquist thinks, are ready for what looks to be a tough conference schedule. They are not, however, through preparing.

“I think we can improve,” he said. “We have to improve. Where I think we need to improve is on our concentration and intensity. We could be better at our inside shooting.”

Although Nordquist praised the play of Inemer, the 6-6 freshman, he and inside mates Chad Staples and Darrin Channels combined for only five rebounds. In contrast, forward Camp was the game’s leading rebounder with nine.

“We could improve on the boards,” Nordquist said.

The Raiders will need to stop Taft when it comes to town Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. game. The Cougars front line features three players who are 6-4 or taller and who play an aggressive inside game.

“Taft is a great team and we’re going to have to play consistently to do well against them,” Nordquist said.

The Raiders’ fast break is improving rapidly and it showed Thursday. More than a few times, Moorpark was able to span the court and score in a matter of seconds. Particularly impressive was Camp, who made three length-of-the-court passes which resulted in Berryman buckets. Camp also led all players in assists with eight.

For anyone keeping track of Abraham’s assault on the school assist record, he had six, bringing his season total to 165 in 16 games. He needs 161 more assists in the remaining 13 games to break Joe Amico’s career record of 575.

ALLAN HANCOCK--Regueira 10; Sikora 8; Vernon 6; Bedlia 6; Torres 3; Duguran 3; Coleman 2; Barenchi 2; Barbarick 2; Lewis 1.

MOORPARK--Berryman 25 and 4 assists; Camp 15, 9 rebounds and 8 assists; Abraham 11 and 6 assists; Staples 6; Channels 3; Inemer 2.