Low-Octane Ventura otors On : Women’s basketball: Pirates held to season-low in points but defeat Citrus anyway, 50-34, in first round of regional.

Maybe it was playoff jitters. Or perhaps it was good defense. But whatever the reason, it was not a game worth remembering for the Ventura College women’s basketball team.

Sure, the Pirates defeated Citrus, 50-34, as expected in a first-round game of the Southern California regional Wednesday night at Ventura, but they had to fight for every shot.

But Ventura managed to hit the mark with more frequency than the Owls, especially from the free-throw line, and will advance to a second-round game at Saturday at Ventura against Cypress, a 77-73 winner over Trade Tech on Wednesday night.

“Artistic it wasn’t, but defensively it was a good game,” Ventura Coach Ned Mircetic said. “The shots were hard to come by for both sides.”

No question about that.

Ventura (26-5), seeded No. 4 in the regional, made only 18 of 63 shots (28.5%) and Citrus (14-9) connected on 15 of 59 (25.4%).

The Pirates, however, held a sizable edge in free throws, making 11 of 17 (64.7%). Citrus converted only two of eight.

“We had good pressure on the ball,” Mircetic said. “The refs let the game go but they let it go both ways.”

It was the fewest points scored by Ventura this season. The Pirates scored 51 points in a game twice, once in a 52-51 loss to Oxnard in a Western State Conference North Division contest Feb. 2.

Against Citrus, a team they defeated, 69-31, at the Cypress tournament in December, the Pirates jumped to a 7-0 lead and a 23-13 cushion at the half behind the shooting of forward Julie Hardy and guard Tara Sanders.

Hardy, a freshman from Buena High, scored nine of her 20 points in the first half and Sanders, a sophomore from Santa Paula High, had eight of her 14 points in the quarter. Hardy also had 19 rebounds and eight steals.

She was particularly efficient during a 1 minute 30 second stretch in the second half, scoring seven unanswered points to give Ventura a 41-29 lead with seven minutes to play.

Before Hardy’s streak, the Owls had pulled to within 34-29, mostly on the scoring of center LaTaya Woods and guard Tamika Metcalf.

Woods led Citrus with 19 points and 21 rebounds, and Metcalf had nine points, all in the second half. Only one other Citrus player, Latricia Johnson (six points) scored.

Most of the scoring by Woods came inside, usually while surrounded by Ventura defenders.

“Making her work hard to get the ball (in the low post) was a key,” Mircetic said. “I think she got two freebies all night.”

Guard Andrea Williams scored eight points for Ventura.