Ventura Turns Back San Jose City With Rally in 2nd Half

Ventura College men’s basketball Coach Philip Mathews stood in the middle of his team’s locker room at the University of San Francisco, looking like someone who had been through a war.

Well, at least a dogfight.

The Pirates, the top-rated team in the state, rallied from a five-point deficit in the second half to beat scrappy San Jose City, 78-68, Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the junior college state championships at Memorial Gym.

Ventura advanced to a semifinal game at 6 tonight against Riverside City. The Tigers beat Diablo Valley, 88-85, in the quarterfinals.

Mathews, who had expected a physical game, knew Ventura (36-1) was fortunate to walk away with the victory against the Jaguars (26-8).

“The second half, they came after us on the boards,” Mathews said. “They made that run on the offensive board.”

That run started with Ventura leading, 52-45, with 13 minutes 33 seconds to play.

San Jose, which had been outrebounded in the first half, 19-11, went to the boards more consistently in the second half and used its aggressiveness to go on a 12-0 run to take a 57-52 lead with 10:58 to play.

But the Jaguars missed their next scoring opportunity, and Ventura forward Calvin Curry responded with a tip of a missed shot and a three-point basket to tie the score, 57-57, with 10:06 left.

“Once we got up by five, we wanted to work it (shot clock) down to 25 (on every possession),” San Jose Coach Percy Carr said in a hoarse voice. “They hurt us when we didn’t score (trying to go up by seven) and they did. That was the ballgame right there.”

Not quite.

San Jose evened the score at 66 and 68 before Curry connected on a 12-foot jump shot and two free throws, and forward Brandon Jessie completed a three-point play on a layup and a free throw with 1:16 to secure the victory.

Point guard Joey Ramirez finished the Pirate scoring with a free throw and a layup.

The game was extremely physical, with bodies repeatedly hitting the floor. San Jose was called for 21 fouls and Ventura for 11. But at least one Pirate enjoyed the roughness.

“They let us play tonight. That was good,” said Jessie, who finished with 23 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. “We just got two more (games) to go and we’ve got to do it.”

Ventura led at the half, 40-35, behind Curry’s long-range shooting. The sophomore from Compton High, who led all scorers with 27 points, hit seven of 17 three-point attempts. He had 17 points in the first half, 15 on three-pointers.

Mathews, however, saw room for improvement in Ventura’s offense in the first half. “We missed free throws,” Mathews said. “I thought we should have been up by 11 at halftime.”

The Pirates made six of 11 free throws in the first half (54%) and 11 of 20 (55%) on the night. But they more than made up for it from the field, shooting 50.9% (29 of 57).

San Jose shot 47% (31 for 66) from the field and 66.7% from the free-throw line (four for six).