Haste Lays Moorpark’s Winning Streak to Waste

As hard as he tried, Moorpark College basketball Coach Al Nordquist could barely camouflage his disappointment.

It’s doubtful anyone in his position could have.

Not when your team slips and lets a commanding lead vanish. Not when you can smell another victory in what has been a successful season so far for the Moorpark College men’s basketball team.

The Raiders, despite leading by 14 points early in the second half Thursday night, lost a Western State Conference interdivisional game, 96-87, to Santa Monica.

The defeat snapped a 10-game winning streak.

“I think we let the tempo get away from us (in the second half),” Nordquist said. “We let it get to a faster pace than we wanted.”

With the faster tempo, the Raiders (17-5, 4-1 in conference play) had problems stopping the transition game of Santa Monica (14-6, 4-1). The Raiders also hurried their shots instead of working the ball around with the crisp passes that opened scoring opportunities inside the key early in the second half.

Moorpark led at the half, 47-39, and went on an 8-2 run after intermission to take a 55-41 advantage. Guard Jaime Jaquez (eight points) and center Rahmid Stinson (17 points) each scored four points in the rally, many thanks to excellent passing by the Raiders.

But Moorpark inexplicably started to force some shots and allowed the Corsairs to get back into the game.

“We were trying to penetrate and do it all by ourselves rather than being patient,” Nordquist said.

The slower tempo worked well for Moorpark in the first half.

Looking for the open man constantly, the Raiders shot a blazing 51.5% from the field in the first 20 minutes of play and no one benefited more from the controlled tempo than guard Sean Martin.

The sophomore from Agoura High scored 21 of his game-high 30 points in the half, including an NBA-range three-point basket at the buzzer. It was the fourth consecutive three-pointer in the half for Martin, who had six in the game.

“Obviously, we weren’t putting up much resistance in the first half,” Santa Monica Coach John McMullen said.

But sophomore guard James Gray and freshman guard Davy Fortson led the Corsair uprising in the final minutes.

Gray scored 13 of his team-high 25 points in the second half and Fortson had 12 of his 18 points in the period to rally Santa Monica. Gray’s backhanded slam with 10 seconds to play gave the Corsairs a 94-82 cushion before Fortson hit two free throws and got two more points on a dunk as time ran out.

“We had to extend our defense so they couldn’t pick us apart with all those inside passes,” McMullen said. “I feel fortunate we found a way to come back.”

The Corsairs helped their cause with 24-of-25 free-throw shooting.