Condors fly past Vaqueros 76-62

Freshman forward Dayshone Henry scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds on Wednesday night, leading Oxnard to a 76-62 men's basketball win over SBCC in the Sports Pavilion.

The Condors improved to 1-1 in the WSC North and 4-11 overall.

Ben Clay, a 6-5 freshman from Santa Barbara High, led the Vaqueros (2-16, 0-2) with 19 points and eight rebounds. Clay hit 8-12 from the field. Drayten Howell added 14 points and a season-best nine assists.

Tyler Crandall had his first collegiate double-double with 12 points and a season-high 13 rebounds, including six on the offensive end. He has 19 points and 23 rebounds in two WSC contests. Chris Givens added 11 points and four steals. Center Robert Livingston (4 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists) left with an ankle injury at the 14:04 mark but returned less than five minutes later with a minor limp.

Santa Barbara only had six healthy players with leading scorer Robert Hutchins (20.6 per game) sidelined by the flu.

"Our guys played extremely hard and we competed," said 27th-year head coach Morris Hodges. "In the first half, we gave up some offensive boards and had a stretch when our shot selection wasn't good. That's when the game kind of opened up."

The Vaqueros took a 16-13 lead on a triple by Givens with 11:14 to go in the first half, then the Condors went on a 13-0 run that included a trio of 3-pointers to take a 26-16 advantage.

Oxnard led 35-28 at the half and went on a 13-6 run to open the second half, taking a 48-34 lead on a layup by Henry.

The Vaqueros put together an 18-11 run and pulled within seven (59-52) on another Givens' trey with 7:40 to play. The visitors responded with a 10-0 run and took their biggest lead of 17 points at 69-52 on a 3 by Jurgen Pirgu and two free throws by Kivaris Myricks.

Igli Pirgu hit 3-5 from downtown and scored 13 for Oxnard. Jakari McClain also scored 13 with five assists.

Oxnard won the shooting battle 38.6 to 34.8 percent and enjoyed a 53-45 rebounding edge. The Condors hit 9-23 from long range while the Vaqueros were 5-21. SBCC only made 50 percent from the charity stripe (9-18) and Oxnard was only slightly better at 56.5 percent.

"We just need to move the ball a little more," Hodges noted. "Our shooting percentage was down because we were taking a lot of tough shots. We need to get the defense shifting and some of those shots will become easier.

"Tyler had a really game with his first double-double. He's only 6-1 but he has good fundamentals and knows how to follow his misses. Considering that we were a little out-manned, I thought our kids really played hard and competed."

 The Vaqueros travel to Hancock on Saturday for a 3 p.m. WSC contest.