COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROUNDUP : Irvine Valley Beats OCC in Overtime

Irvine Valley, lucky to force overtime, pulled away for a 101-96 victory over Orange Coast in an Orange Empire Conference men’s basketball game Friday at Irvine.

Irvine Valley’s Jeremy Garrett scored a rebound-basket with four seconds left in regulation to tie it, 91-91, and time ran out before OCC could get the ball past halfcourt and call a timeout. Garrett was the third Irvine Valley player to shoot as time was running out.

OCC had a chance to take a three-point lead but Rico Blandin made only one of two free throws with 16 seconds left. OCC led, 91-89, at the time.

Blandin’s miss was a rare occurrence for OCC, which made 24 of 28 free throws in the game.

Keon Clark, Irvine Valley’s 6-foot-11 center, had five of his team’s 10 points in overtime and finished with a game-high 30. He made 10 off 11 free throws and finished with 16 rebounds.

Irvine Valley scored the first four points of overtime and never led by fewer than three.

Clark, normally a starter, was benched at the start of the game because Irvine Valley Coach Bill Mulligan said Clark wasn’t playing well. Clark didn’t enter until there were 14 minutes left in the half. He had seven points in the first half and 18 in the second half despite playing with four fouls for the final nine minutes.

“He played better tonight,” Mulligan said of Clark. “But he’s still not playing as well as we would like.”

Rashad Wilson had 22 points and Garrett 15 for Irvine Valley (14-6, 2-0 in conference), which beat Fullerton in overtime Wednesday.

Blandin had 21 and Damion Morbley added 15 for OCC. Morbley, who leads the Pirates in scoring (21) and rebounds (11) missed the first six minutes of the game for discipline reasons.

He had four of OCC’s five points in overtime.

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In other Orange Empire men’s basketball:

Saddleback 89, Golden West 69--Eric Ambrozich had a game-high 27 points and 15 rebounds for the Gauchos (15-3, 2-0). Micah Kroeger had 15, Anthony Carter and Frank Allen each had 14. Rod Scheuerman led the Rustlers (6-11, 0-1) with 17 points.

Rancho Santiago 91, Cypress 74--Michael Oliver and Nick Holt each had 21 points and Jimmy Harris added 20 for Rancho Santiago (13-5, 1-1). Harris was limited to three in Rancho Santiago’s 80-56 loss to Saddleback on Wednesday. Matt Kenney had 17 points to lead Cypress (13-8, 0-2).

Riverside 112, Fullerton 97--Marcus Austin had 26 and Jason Cunningham had 22 for host Fullerton (9-10, 0-2). Rodney Wills had 32 for Riverside (18-2, 2-0), which led at the half, 52-36.

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In Orange Empire Conference women’s basketball:

Golden West 63, Saddleback 39--Farrah Magee, Deana Itow and Julie Murdent scored 14 points each for visiting Golden West (17-5, 2-0).

Riverside 74, Fullerton 66--Nicole deBruijn scored 19 points for Fullerton (10-10, 0-1).