When your point guard has a 8.0 assist/turnover ratio, when every player(14) on the team played 7+ minutes or more and contributes and you out rebound your opponent(40-35) who is sporting a couple of 6’11” Bigs, you are going to win going away.
AVC rolls in home debut vs. Mira Costa
By: John Sanders…Antelope Valley Press
LANCASTER It would be safe to say that the Antelope Valley College men’s basketball team doesn’t have one bona fide superstar player on its team.
They have a lot of really good players.
In fact, you could say they’re loaded.
However, the Marauders entered Friday night’s matchup against Mira Costa riding a 2-game losing streak.
Not to worry.
AVC got back to its winning ways against the Spartans with an easy 89-70 victory in the opening round of the 63rd Annual Gregg Anderson Memorial Tournament.
"I thought we made some shots and played really good defense mixing up our defenses and it got us some easy transition baskets where we kind of flourish," Marauders head coach John Taylor said.
AVC (5-2) got rolling midway through the first half. With the score tied 10-10 with 11:39 remaining in the half, the Marauders promptly used a 14-2 run fueled by two 3-pointers by Tim Gilmore and another by Ismail Ali. The hot shooting by AVC gave it a 24-12 lead.
The Marauders, ranked No. 8 in the state, were able extend that lead later in the half as Joshua Wade scored four consecutive points, including a monster dunk which put them up 31-16.
"We’ve got a lot of good players and we’ve always prided ourselves on team basketball," Taylor said. "Once we get (our half-court offense) down, I think we’ll be pretty formidable."
Still the Spartans (3-4) were able to hang around in the first half. A 3-point shot by Buddha Boyd trimmed the Marauders lead to 33-24. Boyd’s 3-pointer capped an 8-2 run by Mira Costa.
Boyd, who finished with a game-high 27 points, drained another 3-pointer cutting into the lead even further, 39-31.
"We played alright as a team. We still have to work out the kinks on defense, not letting people just dice through us and get layups," Ali said. "We can’t get lazy when we get a big lead. They had a 7-footer, but they couldn’t use him to the best of their ability because we kept running them up and down the floor."
Ali was very efficient quarterbacking the Marauders as he finished with 10 points, eight assists and six rebounds, while committing only one turnover. Shelton Boykin, Jr. led the team with 17 points, right at his average for the season, and Gilmore was 4-of-7 from behind the arc, finishing with 13 points.
"He’s (Gilmore) been slumping a little bit, but he can really stroke it and when he hits one, he’s going to hit like three, four, or five in a row," Taylor said. "He’s got a beautiful shot."
AVC’s Brandon Ruffin came off the bench to give a spark to the Marauders. Leading 39-31 late in the first half, Ruffin scored five consecutive points, including a 3-point play the old fashioned way to give AVC a comfortable 44-31 lead. Ruffin finished with seven points.
After starting the season 4-0, the Marauders lost two games in a row to Saddleback College and East Los Angeles College and they knew they had to return to what they knew, winning.
"The whole week we were just thinking about those two losses that we had," Gilmore said. "We were just worrying about bouncing back. This was a great win for us. This is something we can build on."
Mira Costa kept fighting in the second half, however, and when 6-11 Fareed Ahmed scored an easy bucket, the Spartans only trailed 58-50 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game.
Then it seemed as though the Marauders turned it to another level. They finally said enough of this and over the next five minutes used a 16-3 run including another 3-pointer by Gilmore and one by Kenneth Moffett to give them their largest lead of the game, 74-53.
AVC will now face Los Angeles Harbor College (5-1) in the semifinals. The Seahawks had an easy time with Ventura College, defeating the Pirates, 66-48.
Should the Marauders defeat L.A. Harbor, and San Bernardino Valley College take care of Pierce College, it would set up a showdown of two top 10 teams in the state and it would also renew a rivalry of former conference foes.
