PC opens CVC play with win
PC opens CVC play with win
It says a lot about a team’s wealth of talent when a star player can miss nearly half of the game and the team can still win by double-digits.
Not holding back against the team that kept them from playoffs last season, Porterville College men’s basketball team topped Merced 84-70 in their Central Valley Conference home-opener Wednesday evening.
“We’ve been playing good basketball, the scary thing was having the two weeks off coming to play a team that beat us the last two times we faced them,” PC head coach Rob Haynes said. “This game was very important for us. Can’t look at the record at all...we got to come to their level. I know they’re coming in confident because it’s a new season, 0-0.”
Entering the game making half of their three-point shots, Pirates (6-6, 1-0 CVC) sophomore Carlos Angel went 4-4 from the three-point line in the first half and finished 9-of9 from the field to the lead the team with a game-high 22 points.
Off of the bench, PC sophomore captain Jackson Cascio also knocked down four threepointers and finished with 14 points.
“Jackson stepped it up big time, hit a couple big shots off the bench,” Haynes said. “He’s been shooting the ball well at practice lately, real well. Back to the Jackson of last year. He’s just confident, feels like every time he shoots the ball it’s going to go in. It was good to see him do that because Malik [Mccowan] was in foul trouble so we needed somebody to help give us the extra points.”
Mccowan, the team’s top scorer, missed all but four minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls early. However, he finished with 12 points and four rebounds all in the second half.
Porterville broke away from Merced (2-11, 0-1 CVC) midway through the first quarter when a Cascio block led to an Angel three-pointer off an assist from freshman Elijah Cardenas to put the Pirates up 20-8 for their first double-digit lead of the night. The Pirates then rode that double-digit lead for the rest of the half, closing out on top 41-27.
Porterville got a little too comfortable with their 14-point lead and let Merced back into the game after five straight points from the Blue Devils cut the Pirates’ lead to 43-34 three minutes into the second half.
“When you’re home you got to be able to put your foot on the throat of your competition and right now we’re still trying to figure that out,” Haynes said. “But I’ll take the win whether it’s a 1-point lead or a 14-point lead.”
With less than seven minutes to play in the game, Merced cut Porterville’s lead to six with a shot from Chris Roberson, but two big scores from Mccowan and Jonah Ruckman pushed the lead back into the Pirates favor. Roberson finished with a teamhigh 16 points.
Porterville ended the game on an 8-0 run, thanks to a three-pointer from Cardenas and scores from Angel and Mccowan.
Ruckman, a graduate of Granite Hills High School, finished with eight points and seven rebounds. Cardenas was just shy of a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.
Porterville hosts Cerro Coso (4-8, 0-1 CVC) on Saturday at 6 p.m.