Ventura Needs Rally to Vanquish Moorpark

There are times when Ventura College basketball Coach Philip Mathews criticizes his team without an apparent good reason.

Wednesday night, he found plenty of good ones.

Ventura had to rally from a first-half deficit to beat host Moorpark, 75-59, in a Western State Conference North Division game and extend its winning streak to seven.

But it wasn’t easy--or pretty.

The Pirates (28-1, 4-0 in division play), the state’s top-ranked team, trailed, 42-41, halfway through the second half before taking control.

“We played horrible,” Mathews said. “We played better in the second half, but not to Ventura College standards.”

Ventura, which Saturday got a scare before beating Oxnard by two points in overtime, seemed headed for another close call until its defense tightened in the second half and generated several crucial points off Moorpark turnovers.

Forward Calvin Curry, playing his second game after a month-long layoff because of a knee injury, led the Pirates.

He had a game-high 29 points, including eight three-point baskets.

“They got hot and we made some mistakes in the second half that put us out of the game,” Moorpark Coach Al Nordquist said.

Moorpark (13-13, 2-2) went into the locker room at intermission with a 32-31 edge.

Guard Sean Martin paced the Raider attack in the first half with 12 points and wing Danny Alexander had eight.

Martin scored nine of Moorpark’s last 13 points to finish with a team-high 23.

The Pirates weren’t able to shake off Moorpark until Mike King and Joey Ramirez brought them back with timely baskets.

King scored four consecutive points to give Ventura a 47-42 cushion with 10 minutes 19 seconds to play. Ramirez sandwiched two three-pointers around a Brandon Jessie dunk to extend the Pirate lead to 61-44 with 7:11 remaining.

Guard Stephane Brown sat out the game for what Mathews said were disciplinary reasons.

King also had 13 rebounds and Jessie had nine. Ventura outrebounded Moorpark, 37-24. Moorpark forward Elijah Maxey, who went into the game averaging 20 points, finished with only two points. He got into foul trouble early in the game and took only nine shots, two in the second half. Two of his misses were dunk attempts.

Mathews promised unspecified changes for the Pirates.

“We didn’t have any legs tonight,” Mathews said. “I’m very disappointed. We didn’t come out to play.”