Oxnard Leaves Rio Mesa in Rearview Mirror, 75-32

There’s little question about who is the best team in the Pacific View League this season.

Oxnard High saw to that with a 75-32 rout of Rio Mesa in a boys’ basketball game on Friday night.

Oxnard edged Rio Mesa, 59-56, in the first round of league play on Jan. 14, but the Yellowjackets overwhelmed the Spartans in the rematch with a suffocating full-court press that produced 31 turnovers.

“We had a job to do today and we did it,” Coach Henry Lobo of Oxnard said.

“Our goal was to play intense for four quarters and we did that.”

Oxnard clinched its second consecutive league title while posting its second consecutive 20-victory season.

“They just took us out of everything we tried to do,” said David Bregante, Rio Mesa assistant who filled because Coach Chris Nordquist’s wife went into labor at 5:30 a.m. Friday.

“The pressure really got to us and took us out of what we were trying to do.

“We were able to control the tempo the first game, but they got us to play up and down the court with them [Friday night] and that’s not our game.”

Rio Mesa (8-12, 2-4 in league play) trailed, 22-18, after the Spartans’ John McBride converted a three-point play with 5:13 left in the second quarter.

But Oxnard (20-4, 7-0) went on a 15-3 run to end the quarter with a 37-21 lead.

The Yellowjackets opened the second half with a 12-3 run that gave them a 49-24 advantage with 4:06 left in the third quarter.

Senior guard Matthew Merricks ignited Oxnard’s third-quarter run by stealing the ball three times in the first 70 seconds. He fed Jonathan Davis for a layup and a 41-21 lead with 7:20 left after the first steal and assisted Erik Webb on another layup for a 43-21 lead after his second steal.

Merricks, who had 16 points and 12 steals, followed that with a steal at midcourt and a layup that gave Oxnard a 45-21 lead with 6:50 remaining.

“We didn’t play particularly well that day,” Lobo said of Oxnard’s first game against Rio Mesa. “And they did a lot of good things.

“But [Friday night], we did a lot of good things.”

Nicholas Curtis, a 6-foot-6 junior center, had 15 points, 12 rebounds and five steals for Oxnard. Senior forward Ricky Hernandez had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Yellowjackets, the No. 4-ranked team in the region by The Times.

McBride had 12 points for Rio Mesa, which made only eight of 46 shots.

“This was a very big win for us,” Lobo said. “We wanted to clinch the league title and win 20 games. We wanted to make sure we got a home game for the first round of the playoffs.

“But we still have something to do. We still have to play Hueneme on Tuesday night.”

Hueneme (14-8, 4-2) came within five seconds of beating Oxnard last year, but the Yellowjackets beat the Vikings, 58-46, on Jan. 19.