Ventura Stands Up to Best Riverside Has to Offer, 87-84

In most of its victories, the Ventura College basketball team has gotten out of the gate quickly and won going away.

But the Pirates simply survived, 87-84, against visiting Riverside in the second round of the Southern California regional of the state tournament Wednesday night.

Top-seeded Ventura (31-4) weathered 70% first-half shooting by the 17th-seeded Tigers. Riverside’s Loudon Williams (34 points, eight rebounds) and Daniel Lyton (24 points, three blocked shots) had superlative games. And Ventura trailed by eight points early in the second half.

But in the end, it was the Pirates’ superior depth and clutch free-throw shooting that made the difference and earned them a berth among the final 16 teams for the second consecutive year. Ventura will play host to Saddleback, a 93-85 winner over MiraCosta.

“We did the right things to win, but we didn’t get it done the last five minutes of the game,� Riverside Coach Bob Schermerhorn said.

Riverside (21-14), the fourth-place team from the Orange Empire Conference, came out hot, sinking nine of its first 10 shots and took a 23-11 lead with nine minutes gone. Between them, Williams and Lyton converted 15 of 16 field-goal attempts and had 32 of the Tigers’ 45 first-half points.

Ventura hung in as Maurice Smith (career-high 22 points) came off the bench for 10 first-half points and forward Stephane Brown added nine.

Down seven points at intermission and shooting just 34% from the field, Ventura got it going in the second half. Consecutive three-point baskets by Smith, Jabari Anderson and Jason Liebl knotted the score at 52-52, and it was a seesaw affair the rest of the way.

Ventura took the lead for good, 82-81, on a tip-in and subsequent free throw by Michael Tate (14 points, 13 rebounds) with 58 seconds remaining. Chico Langston added a free throw and D’Mitri Rideout sank two pressure free throws with 16 seconds left to give the Pirates an 85-81 edge.

Riverside’s James Washington missed a three-point shot at the other end and the outcome was all but sealed.

“We just kept coming at them, and I think we wore them down,� Ventura Coach Phil Mathews said.