Streaking Ventura Upends Moorpark

Ventura and Moorpark colleges, teams headed in opposite directions, met in a Western State Conference North Division men’s basketball game Saturday night, and the outcome was even worse than expected for the visiting Raiders.

Ventura hammered Moorpark, 93-61, in a game in which the Raiders played the first half without their leading scorers, Damian Wilson and Jimmy Galbert.

Wilson, who began the week averaging 21.2 points a game, and Galbert (14.1), missed the team bus because they said that their car broke down on the way to Moorpark.

The pair arrived at Ventura with three minutes to play in the first half, but they did not play until 17 minutes 28 seconds remained.

At that juncture, Ventura led, 43-26, and was in the middle of what would be a 34-9 run that began at the start of the second half. The win was Ventura’s ninth in a row.

Wilson and Galbert were late for the warm-ups before a Pasadena tournament game in December and Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist benched them both for the entire game.

Despite playing without Wilson and Galbert, Moorpark trailed by only nine points, 34-25, at halftime, and even led, 21-15, at the midway point.

But Ventura went to a full-court press to start the second half and the Pirates (24-4, 3-0 in division play) did not trail thereafter.

Leading, 35-26, a minute into the second half, Ventura scored eight consecutive points--three baskets came after Moorpark turnovers--in the next 45 seconds before the Raiders called a timeout.

Wilson and Galbert soon entered the game, but by then the outcome was decided.

“Our defense has a way of doing that to other teams,” Ventura Coach Philip Mathews said. “We’re still not executing how I’d like to on offense at times, but our defense gave them some problems.”

The Raiders (8-16, 1-2) committed 14 turnovers in the first half and 32 overall. But the last 10 minutes of the first half proved particularly costly to Moorpark.

Leading, 21-15, the Raiders committed nine turnovers and converted only two of nine field-goal attempts the rest of the half. Ventura countered with a 19-4 run and led by nine at intermission.

Stephane Brown scored a game-high 17 points for Ventura and teammate Reggie Phillips added 14. Chico Langston and Lamarr Smith each scored 13, and D’Mitri Rideout added 12 for the Pirates.

Ventura took an amazing 102 shots from the field--thanks to many second and third opportunities--but made just 36.3%. The Pirates also struggled from the free-throw line, making just nine of 19, but 20 steals helped make up for the poor shooting.