Ventura Wins Despite Having Guards Down : College basketball: Foul trouble hampers backcourt, but forwards step up in 92-78 regional win over Harbor.

Even with its starting guards on the bench most of the second half because of foul trouble, the Ventura College men’s basketball team is still too much to handle.

The Pirates again showed they are a complete team with a 92-78 victory over Harbor in a first-round game of the Southern California regional Saturday night before 3,300 at Ventura.

Ventura (32-2), seeded No. 1 in the regional, will advance to a second-round game Wednesday at home against Rancho Santiago, a 91-89 winner over Compton.

With point guard Joey Ramirez and backcourt partner D’Mitri Rideout both slapped with their fourth fouls early in the second half, the Pirates gave the whip to center Michael Tate and forward Brandon Jessie.

The two sophomores didn’t disappoint, combining for 49 points and 33 rebounds.

Jessie scored a team-high 25 points and led all rebounders with 19. Tate added 24 points and 14 rebounds.

Tate was especially impressive in the second half with three dunks and two of his four blocks.

“Our whole game plan was to keep them off the boards and not give them a second chance,” Tate said. “I felt that I had to step up and do the job.”

Jessie, who along with Tate is one of the better leapers in junior college basketball, thrilled the crowd with four dunks of his own.

One in particular--a one-handed jam after following his own missed 15-foot jumper--rocked the gym and gave Ventura a 58-51 edge with 13 minutes 46 seconds to play.

“Their size and our (missed) free throws hurt us,” Harbor Coach Carl Strong said. “We don’t have the physical guys like Tate and Jessie.”

And the few the Seahawks (13-17) have got into foul trouble and were not a factor offensively.

Forward Eric Wright, for instance, scored only eight points and fouled out in the second half. The 6-foot-4 freshman averaged 19.6 points in South Coast Conference play.

“He’s the only guy we have who can legitimately score inside,” Strong said. “It hurt us when he got in foul trouble.”

With Wright neutralized, Harbor was forced to find an alternative and found one in guard Codi Evans, who drove effectively to the hoop and connected on several jumpers to finish with a game-high 30 points.

Ramirez bounced back after re-entering the game with about six minutes remaining and finished with 17 points.