Oxnard rallies late to edge Vaqueros, 65-61

Oxnard erased a three-point deficit with a late 9-1 run and went on to defeat SBCC 65-61 in men's basketball game on Wednesday night at the Sports Pavilion.

Terrance Nunnery and Deondre Edwards combined to score 41 for the Condors (4-14, 3-5 WSC North). Nunnery, a 6-3 freshman, hit 5-11 from 3-point range and led all scorers with 24 points.

Sean Keyes knocked down 4-9 from 3-point land and scored 14 of his 15 points in the first half for the Vaqueros (4-15, 0-7), who trailed 35-34 at intermission in the annual Coaches vs. Cancer Game. Elijah Grant had a season-high 13 points and six rebounds and Jonathan Montez added 12 points and eight boards. Center Thomas Walker grabbed seven rebounds but hit only 1-8 from the field.

"We got hurt on some of those 3-balls by Nunnery," said SBCC coach Morris Hodges. "We kind of fell asleep on a few out-of-bounds plays. I think he hit at least two of those on in-bounds from under our basket.

"We had our chances but we didn't get key stops and we didn't cash in on opportunities around the basket.

After trailing by as many as six in the second half, the Vaqueros went on a 9-2 run, capped by a triple from Justin Holden and a free throw by Montez to take a 57-54 lead with 3:56 to play. Oxnard responded with its 9-1 burst, including five straight by the 5-foot-6 Edwards to take a 63-58 advantage with 2:21 to play.

"Justin Holden had a good game," Hodges added. "He scored eight points and did a lot of things that don't show up in the stats. I thought his floor leadership was good. He was talking and really got us organized when he came in at the point guard position. Grant gave us some good minutes too."

Grant, who was 3-5 on 3-pointers, nailed a trey from the baseline to pull SBCC within two (63-61) with 2:04 to play. The Vaqueros missed two straight open 3's and Robert Martinez made the first of two free throws for a three-point lead with 12.2 seconds left.

After the Vaqueros misfired on another long 3, Nunnery made the second of two foul shots for the final four-point margin.

The Vaqueros blocked a season-high nine shots, led by three from Alex Koutroubis and two by Montez.

SBCC outrebounded the visitors 50-37 and narrowly outshot them 35.4 to 34.9 percent. Oxnard hit 10-25 from 3-point range while SBCC was 9-25.

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