Canyons Uses 19-0 Run to Top Moorpark

The College of the Canyons men’s basketball team, motivated by a nightmarish performance against Ventura earlier in the week, flew to a convincing 91-67 victory over host Moorpark in a Western State Conference interdivision game Saturday night.

Canyons had begun the week as the seventh-ranked team in the J.C. Athletic Bureau state poll, but after getting hammered by No. 6 Ventura, 93-67, on its home court Wednesday night, the Cougars were wondering whether they deserved to be regarded that highly.

“They woke us up, that’s for sure,” Canyons guard David Langley said. “We went into that game kind of cocky and they brought us back down.

“We wanted to come out here tonight and just play some good defense, and that’s what we did.”

Canyons (14-5) took control at the outset. The Cougars outscored Moorpark, 19-0, in the first 4 minutes 57 seconds and led at halftime, 40-25.

They then hit nine of their first 10 second-half shots to take a 61-39 lead with 13 minutes to play and cruised from there.

Langley (15 points, seven rebounds, six assists) keyed the 19-0 blitzkrieg, scoring two baskets and assisting on four others.

“It was very important for us to start out fast,” Canyons Coach Lee Smelser said. “We needed to get our heads back on straight after the thrashing we took the other night.”

Moorpark (5-14) got no closer than 13 points after going scoreless in the first 5 1/2 minutes.

Trailing, 33-13, the Raiders went on a 12-7 run to end the first half. Carlos Vasquez keyed the surge, scoring 10 of his 12 points on four-of-four shooting (including two three-point shots) from the field.

Much of Canyons’ halftime lead was the result of the Cougars’ willingness to out hustle Moorpark, but the Raiders did not help their cause with horrendous shooting from the field (10 of 36), and sloppy ballhandling (nine turnovers).

Moorpark shot a dismal 39.1% (28 of 69) from the field in the game. Canyons made 60.3%, hitting 38 of 63 attempts.

Moorpark was hampered by Damian Wilson’s absence for most of the first half. Wilson entered the game averaging 26 points but played only a few minutes in the first half and failed to score. He finished with 12 points.

Moorpark assistant Marc Joffe said “it was a coaches decision” to bench Wilson for most of the first half.

Jason Joynes, Canyons’ 6-foot-9 freshman center from Adelaide, Australia, tied Langley for game-high scoring honors with 15 points. Joynes had been held to two points against Ventura after scoring a season-high 31 points in a 95-92 double-overtime victory over Oxnard on Jan. 4.

Marquis Wilborn (14 points), Reggie Bell (12 points, 12 rebounds) and Jeff Dorst (10 points, 11 rebounds), Canyons’ other starters, also scored in double figures.

“We got everyone into the flow of the game,” Langley said. “The starters and the subs too. That was very important.”

Sean Doyle scored a team-high 13 points for Moorpark, 12 in the second half.