COMMUNITY COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Golden West Survives a Big Chill

On a night when both coaches were asking how poorly their teams shot, Golden West College came away with a 57-48 victory over Orange Coast in an Orange Empire Conference basketball game Saturday at OCC.

Orange Coast shot 36.3% (20 of 55) in scoring its second-lowest point total of the season.

Golden West finished at 34.5% (18 of 52) and scored its season-lowest total.

OCC struggled, in part, because the Pirates were without starting center Alan Schlines, who missed the game because of a sprained right ankle he suffered in Wednesday’s game against Fullerton. Schlines is averaging 15.1 points a game.

But why did Golden West shoot so poorly?

“They did a great job on us,” Rustler Coach Jim Greenfield said. “This was one of those games where things just got going the wrong way.”

The score was tied, 26-26, at the half, then Golden West went on a 14-6 run in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Rustlers held their biggest lead at 51-36 with 3:33 left.

Orange Coast went on a 7-0 run, which ended with a three-pointer by Paul Kos, to cut the lead to 51-43 with 2:08 left, but the Pirates got no closer.

Alex Kreps led Golden West with 18 points and Ric Van Scoyce added 14. Kevin Andersen had a team-high 10 rebounds, but struggled shooting. He was one of 10 and finished with three points. Golden West is 18-8 overall and 5-2 in conference play.

Scott DeStefano led OCC with 17 points and Kos had 13. Brian Spratt added 10 points for the Pirates (13-9, 2-5).

In other Orange Empire Conference games:

Rancho Santiago 90, Riverside 71--Coach Dana Pagett became the winningest coach in Rancho Santiago’s history with the victory at home. Pagett, in his eighth season, has a career record of 156-90. He passed Rolland Todd, who had a 155-71 mark from 1975 to 1982.

Matt Lien led Rancho Santiago with 22 points. LeVern Broadnax added 18 and Gene Altamirano scored 16 for second-place Rancho Santiago (23-2, 6-1).

Cypress 89, Saddleback 76--Sophomore guard Vince Hizon scored a career-high 28 points to lead first-place Cypress (21-3, 7-0) at Saddleback. Cypress is a game ahead of second-place Rancho Santiago and two games ahead of Golden West.

Hizon was six of 10 and teammate Grayle Humphrey was four of six from three-point range to finish with 14 points. Cypress hit 12 of 18 three-pointers.

Eric Pauley scored 18 points, had 12 rebounds and six assists for Cypress. Mike Renaud had 10 points and Andre Lamoureux had nine points and nine rebounds for Cypress.

Terrell Malone scored 18 and had eight rebounds and Greg Reynolds had 19 points for Saddleback (8-15, 1-6).