On Cloud Nine
With 9 players, PC runs past West Hills
The Porterville College men’s basketball team won the day at its home game on Wednesday at the PC gym, its third win in a row for the new year and a 10-3 record overall.
With a powerful showing of 103-86 win the Pirates win their first conference game of the year and will continue on to take on the Fresno City at 5 p.m. Saturday. Unfortunately there will be no spectators allowed due to COVID19 concerns but it will be live streamed on the Porterville Athletics Youtube page.
All nine players for Porterville would go on to score this game with Chirrag Sidhu leading the team with 20 points and Julio Phipps a close second with 15. The Pirates had a tough game with the Golden Eagles. PC coach Amaurys Fermin said, “We had a slow start, a lot of points made it through in the first half.”
Only three minutes into the game, a three pointer that slides past the Pirates defense gave West Hills a 7-0 lead.
As the game moves on the Pirates started pulling together as Phipps rebounds the ball and passed over to Isaiah Josue who made his way past two defending Golden Eagles and took his shot but it went wide and bounced from the rim. Chirrag Sidhu was right under the basket and was able to rebound and pass it to Quame Smith and then to Josue once more for the first basket for the Pirates, making it 7-2.
Mason Pryor ran past the single Eagle defender left between him and the basket and he scored to make it 7-4. Quame Smith is next up to sink a basket 6-9 as the Pirates made wholesale changes. With Alberto Laureano in the game he’s passed the ball from Chozen Amadi and scores a three pointer to tie the game 9-9.
A fast round of play from each side causes a tit for tat scoring as the Golden Eagles and Pirates take turns upping the anti. Laureano rebounded the ball from a failed Golden Eagle shot and then passed it to Josue whose shot went wide but Laureano is there again for the rebound and the basket as he lays it nicely in the net. With a foul from the Golden Eagles Laureano sinks his free throw and pulls PC to within 18-16.
The Golden Eagles, keen on not letting the Pirates gain momentum, rush through the Pirate defense and trip, spilling the ball onto the court. With a few players diving out to get the ball its passed to Jaden Jones who runs to the Golden Eagle basket and dunks the ball home at 12:20 remaining in the first half tying the game 18-18.
PC went on to take a 52-39 halftime lead.
The second half started warily as the Golden Eagles played a more defensive game. The Golden Eagles began a comeback before the Pirates respond with Sidhu hitting a three pointer.
The second half trickled down as the Pirates maintained a close lead. Josue scored on a dunk to give the PC a 72-64.
A time out is called by West Hills with only three minutes remaining on the clock. The Pirates led by 15 points, and Pryor snagged the rebound for another two point conversion followed by Jaden Jones and again by Josue to give PC a 93-75.
One last Golden Eagle timeout at only 1:45 left left the Pirates in a comfortable position with Fermin letting his players know they had all the time they needed. Jaden Jones secured the final margin for the game 103-86 as he passed three Golden Eagle defenders to lay the ball easily in the basket.
“Honestly when a game gets over 100 points we’re happy,” Fermin said. “That means our offense, even if it was a bit slow early on, still came prepared and ready. Our defense kinda suffered in the first half but we buckled down. With only nine guys on our team at the moment we’re a bit low on our diversity but the guys are pulling it together.
“Eight freshmen and two sophomores make our team pretty green, but when we stay level headed and keep calm, we can make games like this happen. It’s all about getting excited and making sure we maintain our composure, it’s something we’ll be working on for sure. Our rebound game is good as well. I look forward to seeing what we can do later this season.”