Oxnard Bid for Upset Falls Short

Oxnard College Coach Remy McCarthy spent most of the second half of Wednesday night’s game chastising the referees for making what he considered calls that favored Glendale.

“Everything’s gone white, ref. Everything,” McCarthy said, referring to Glendale’s white uniforms.

But when Condor guard Mike Price was ejected for squaring off with Glendale forward Alex Berry late in the game, the coach saw red and the Condors fell, 73-69.

Price, one of the top-scoring players in the Western State Conference, was held to 8 points before he was ejected.

Trailing by 6, 60-54, the Condors staged a brief rally with less than 7 minutes to play. The 12-7 flurry began when Andy Beltowski grabbed an errant Glendale pass and drove the length of the court for the basket. Shortly after that, Randy Carter, who led Oxnard with 23 points, stole an inbound pass under the Condor basket and hit a short bank shot.

Almost single-handedly, with about 2 minutes to play, reserve Vaquero center Jimmie Fowler short-circuited the Oxnard surge. He scored a layup, went back door for a slam and blocked 2 shots.

Fowler, at 6 feet, 7 inches the tallest Glendale player, says that he is comfortable with his role as a spark plug for the Vaqueros.

“I get the baseline dunk and we get to running,” he said.

Glendale players didn’t need to do much running in the waning minutes, however. They spent a lot of their time at the free-throw line trying to cash in desperation fouls by Oxnard. But the game remained close when the Vaqueros missed 3 front-end free throws on 1-and-1 situations.

Though forward Dave Swanson’s shooting hand cooled in the stretch, he was on fire in the first half.

Swanson, who took game-high honors with 25 points and 12 rebounds, scored 21 points before the intermission--including 5 3-point baskets. Swanson says that the Condors changed their defensive alignment at halftime to compensate for his hot hand.

Despite the fact that Swanson scored just 4 points after that streak, Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin said that was enough.

“He kept us in the game,” Beauchemin said.

Glendale guard Bruce Heicke scored 15 and Gary Fowler added 12.