Community Colleges : Riverside Hits From Outside and Wins

Riverside College took advantage of some unexpected strong outside shooting early and went on to defeat Cypress, 76-64, in an Orange Empire Conference men’s basketball game Wednesday at Cypress.

Late in the first half, Riverside made 7 consecutive outside shots and 8 of 9 to take a 37-18 halftime lead.

With 7 minutes 40 seconds remaining in the half and Riverside leading, 18-14, the Tigers, shooting only 46% from the field, got hot from the outside.

Riverside shot 55% (16 of 29) in the first half.

Michael Stewart had 4 baskets during the Riverside streak.

“We had somewhat of a false lead because of our outside shooting,” Riverside Coach Bob Boyd said. “Things came too easy too early. We are not known for that. People think of us more as an inside team.”

Riverside got its biggest lead, 48-23, with 14:48 left in the game on a dunk by Bobby Joyce.

Cypress finally started to cut into the lead behind sophomore guard Mike Varos, who made 5 of 9 3-pointers, all in the second half. Cypress was able to cut the lead to 8 twice in the final 4 minutes but could get no closer.

Varos led Cypress with 16 points, and Vince Hizon and Andre Lamoureux had 14 each. Varos played the game wearing a mask because of a broken nose he suffered Friday when a teammate hit him with an elbow.

Stewart had 22 points to lead Riverside (19-8 overall and 4-1 in conference play). Corry Arnet had 12 points and Joyce and Mike Lewis had 11 each.

Cypress (10-11, 2-2), which was shooting a conference best 75% from the free-throw line, made only 12 of 22 for 55%.