L.A. Southwest rides big second half to 88-56 win over Vaqueros

L.A. Southwest snapped a 38-38 halftime tie with a 30-8 run to open the second half on Friday night and went on to hand SBCC an 88-56 men's basketball loss on the second day of the L.A. Southwest Intensity Classic.

DeAndre Currie-Rice paced the Cougars (4-5) with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Southwest outshot the Vaqueros 55.6 to 31.8% in the second half and outscored them 50-18.

Kile Kleiner tallied 19 of his 22 points in the opening half for the Vaqueros (2-10). The 6-5 freshman guard hit 8-15 from the field and 6-10 from downtown. He scored 13 points in the first eight minutes, including back-to-back triples that gave the Vaqueros a 22-16 lead.

Zeke McMurtry added 12 points and nine rebounds. It was his fifth game with nine rebounds and he's missed a double-double by one rebound in all five of those contests. McMurty has five double-doubles in 11 games.

There were nine lead changes and nine ties in the first 20 minutes when the Vaqueros shot 48.4% and hit 7-14 on 3-pointers.

SBCC was hurt by turnovers, committing a season-high 27 that led to 34 points. Southwest only had 12 turnovers leading to five points.

The Cougars made 13-18 free throws compared to just 3-4 for the visitors.

SBCC will play its third and final game in the round-robin tourney on Saturday against Orange Coast at 3 p.m.