Ventura rides big second half to 92-75 victory

Ventura shot 57.6% in the second half and scored 56 points on Saturday night to secure a 92-75 comeback win over SBCC in the Sports Pavilion.

The first-place Pirates, ranked 21st in the state, won their seventh straight to improve to 15-9 and 6-0 in the WSC North. Joseph Holden scored a season-high 26 for the Vaqueros (3-20, 0-6) and Zeke McMurtry notched his seventh straight double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Holden, a freshman guard from Oakland, dropped in 8-14 from the field and 3-8 from 3-point country. He's scored 22, 22 and 26 in his last three games. McMurtry had four assists and Kile Kleiner chipped in with 18 points and five rebounds.

Tone Patton, a 6-4 freshman from Chicago, topped the Pirates with 24 points and eight rebounds. Keron Bailey hit 7-10 shots and also had a double-double with 19 points and 10 boards.

There were seven ties and six lead changes in the first half. Holden canned a 3-pointer to give the Vaqueros their largest lead (38-31), then the visitors scored the last five of the half to pull within a basket, 38-36.

The Pirates outshot the Vaqueros 50% to 38.5% and won the board battle 47-31.

"We played really good defense in the first half, we moved the ball and we got to the bucket," said SBCC coach Morris Hodges. "In the second half, we were getting stops in the opening minutes but our shot selection was very poor. We got sped up and we had too many empty trips to start the second half."

Ventura opened the second half on a 13-3 run to open an eight-point lead (49-41). The Vaqueros cut it to three when Holden canned a 3-pointer and a 10-foot jumper (49-46) but the Pirates responded with a 20-7 burst and stretched the lead to 16 on two free throws by Timothy Turner (14 points, 5 rebounds).

Ventura won the shooting battle in the second half, 57.6% to 35.5%, and outscored the Vaqueros 56-37.

The Vaqueros will travel to Moorpark on Wednesday for a 5 p.m. contest.