Victory Over Valley Gives Oxnard Look of Contender

With only one returning starter, the Oxnard College basketball team has not been mentioned with great frequency when the conversation turns to Western State Conference title contenders.

The time might be at hand for a reassessment.

Oxnard scored a convincing 68-61 inter-divisional victory over Valley on Wednesday night at Santa Clara High, the Condors’ ninth win in 14 games.

Granted, Valley (11-9 overall) was without starting forward Russell Baldwin who suffered a sprained right ankle in practice Monday.

But don’t bother mentioning that to Oxnard (11-9), which used a balanced scoring attack and a hustling defense to claim the win.

“I didn’t know (Baldwin was missing),” said Oxnard’s Art Wallace, a 6-foot-10, 200-pound freshman center who scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. “We’re just getting better. Every day in practice.”

Condor Coach Remy McCarthy is not ready to predict a title, but he too is seeing improvement.

“I certainly don’t think we’re a favorite but, all in all, we are making progress,” McCarthy said. “I really thought we played very well defensively tonight.”

The Oxnard offense was also up to par; Wallace received support from sophomore guards Shawn Talley (15 points) and freshmen Malik Williams (14) and James Parker (13).

Wallace, Talley and Parker all hail from Crane High in Chicago.

Oxnard, which built a 19-point second-half lead then held off a late Monarch surge, connected on 31 of 63 shots from the field.

Valley’s Randy Brown led all players with 19 points and also pulled down 15 rebounds. But it wasn’t enough as the Monarchs made just 22 of 68 from the field and committed 19 turnovers.

“Thank God it wasn’t a (South Division) game,” said Valley Coach Jim Stephens, whose club clearly missed Baldwin’s offense (15.7 scoring average). “We couldn’t shoot the ball and we couldn’t handle the ball.”

That was most evident at the start of the second half as Valley watched a five-point halftime deficit (32-27) mushroom when the Monarchs opened the half one of six from the field and committed seven turnovers.

Trailing, 64-48, with 5 minutes 12 seconds to play, Valley tried to rally behind Brown, Eric Dafney (15 points) and David Tyner (10 points). But the Monarchs’ bid fell short despite the fact that Oxnard missed three consecutive one-and-one free throws in the final minute.

Art Kirksey turned in a solid effort for Valley and finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds.

In a slow-paced first half, Oxnard threatened to break the game open only to have the die-hard Monarchs rally in the final three minutes and close to within 32-27 at the break.

Williams, a guard, came off the bench to spark Oxnard with nine first-half points as Valley fell behind by as many as 12.

“Malik might as well be a starter,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think any one individual stood out. And that’s the way I like it. We had a total team effort on defense.”

But the Monarchs weren’t ready to buckle. Reserve guard Dafney came up with some clutch outside shots and Brown ended the half with a three-point basket at the buzzer.