Thrilling win for PC
With the crowd rocking and his coach calling for a timeout, Porterville College sophomore Carlos Angel hit a go-ahead 3-pointer from the left corner and put the Pirates up late in the game.
“That was a big shot because I was yelling timeout,” PC head coach Rob Haynes said of the big basket that gave PC a 9895 lead with 1 minute and 7 seconds to go. “I didn’t have no doubt, but I didn’t want that shot at the time. But players make plays.”
Sophomore Malik Mccowan finished with a team-high 27 points and knocked down one of his free throws to seal the win for the Pirates (2-3) in the final 36 seconds of the game. Mccowan also le the team in free throws, going 8-of-12 from the line.
Behind a thundering crowd decked out in red, Porterville beat Oxnard 99-95 in a secondhalf thriller for the first preseason game at home in two years.
“We got the best home crowd in the state in junior college,” Haynes said. “That’s why I love it so much here. We wanted to make sure that — No. 1 we wanted to win so that people come back — but also I knew when it was four minutes to go... i knew if we got a bucket, that crowd would get unleashed. And that’s what happened.”
Porterville’s bench and the crowd’s chants of “Defense! Defense!” were nearly deafening when Oxnard (0-4) turned the ball over on a shot clock violation. Down two with less than four minutes on the clock, sophomore guard Steven Ulloa hit freshman forward Brandon Thomas for a layup that tied the game. The Condors were able to regain the lead over the next minute, but Angel’s shot and the energy of the crowd kept the win in the Pirates favor.
Angel finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists while Thomas was one rebound shy of a double-double with nine rebounds and 13 points. Freshman forward Damoni Jones tacked on 10 points and five rebounds.
The score was closer than it should have been after Porterville opened
the game on a 15-0 run in the first five minutes of the game. The Pirates let the Condors back into the game thanks to turnovers and missed free throws which Haynes said was uncommon for his team. As a team, Porterville was 21-of-36 from the free throw line and had 22 turnovers.
“We got cute, we got complacent,” Haynes said. “We didn’t play winning basketball. We like making things hard for ourselves for what-
ever reason. I just don’t understand that. And that’s been the tale of all the games thus far.”
For Oxnard, guard Jakari Mcclain finished with a game-high 32 points and was 1010 from the free throw line. Teammate Lonnie Hinchen finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds.
Porterville has a whole week to get themselves ready for their next game on Wednesday, Nov. 22 when they
travel north to the Bay Area for a 4 p.m. game against Deanza College.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Haynes said. “They’re real blue collarish. It’s tough playing up there in the north cause the [referees] don’t know you so you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt. The mistakes that we made...can’t do that on the road. And that’s something we’re going to have to fine tune, we’re going to have to figure that out.”