No Roadblock for Ventura

So much for home court disadvantage.

Ventura College, seemingly oblivious to its surroundings, routed De Anza, 81-61, Thursday night in a quarterfinal game of the women’s basketball Junior College State Championships at De Anza.

“We’ve been a very good road team all year,” Ventura Coach Ned Mircetic said. “It’s important to be a good road team because of situations like this that come up.”

The Pirates (34-1), defending state champions and top-ranked in the state, will play Solano (32-5) in a semifinal game today at 2:30 p.m. at San Jose State.

Solano beat Cuesta, 73-62.

Ventura downed Solano, 84-77, in December at the College of the Sequoias tournament.

Against De Anza (30-7), which the Pirates beat, 77-73, at Sequoias the day after defeating Solano, Ventura was in full control.

“When you win at this time of the year, it feels as good as it can feel,” Mircetic said.

“There are very few lessons to be learned at this stage. You come out and play. If you win, you play again.”

The Pirates led, 46-24, at the half and by as many as 33 points several times in the second half.

Ventura outrebounded De Anza, 57-34, and made 50.0% (28 of 56) of its shots.

The Dons shot 30.4% (21 of 69).

Freshman guard Amirah Leonard sparked Ventura with 22 points, 14 in the first half.

Sophomore forward Adria Sneed finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Pirates.

“De Anza is very good,” Mircetic said. “We played an outstanding first half.

“When you play like that, everyone thinks you can do it again, and it’s not that easy.”

Freshman guard Shana Buchanan scored 22 points for De Anza and Jaymie Woodard added 15 points.

Now, Mircetic gets to face a Solano team coached by former De Anza standout Kim Mitchell, who is engaged to De Anza Coach Mike Gervasoni.

If Ventura reaches the championship game Saturday at San Jose State, the Pirates could become the fourth school to win consecutive titles in eight years.

Golden West won the championship in 1990 and 1991, Lassen in 1992 and 1993 and Harbor in 1994 and 1995.