Owls Survive in Desert

Palm Desert, CA -- The Citrus College Men's Basketball team hit the road on Wednesday evening for a trip out to College of the Desert where they faced off with a feisty Roadrunner squad. After one half of play, Citrus lead by five points before pulling away late 97-85.

The game was back and forth throughout the early part of the first half. Citrus jumped out to a 9-5 lead thanks to a trio of three balls from sophomore Mark Williams, Caleb Richey, and freshman Kenneth Cyprian. Still, Desert turned the tables on Citrus and led by as much as six points with 5:36 to go. That's when Williams went to work for the Owls, scoring seven points on their next three possessions to tie the game up at 32-32. From there Citrus would go on to outscore Desert 14-9 to close out the half, taking a 46-41 lead into the break.

In the second half, Citrus quickly pushed their lead to double digits via a three from sophomore Jordan McNellys and a lay-in by Richey. The Owls' biggest lead of the night would come at the 14:30 mark when sophomore Jeriko Santos sent a three through the bottom of the net to make it 66-50. Desert wouldn't roll over though. The Roadrunners got the Citrus lead down to four with 9:12 left on the clock, but the Owls used a small 5-0 run to put some distance back between themselves and Desert and never looked back.

In the win, Williams poured in a team high 25 points, while also grabbing 10 rebounds. Sophomore Ryan Wiley fell one point shy of another double-double, scoring nine points and ripping down a game high 13 boards. McNellys and Cyprian each poured in 15, while Richey had nine and a game high six assists.

With the win, Citrus improves to 3-2 on the year. The Owls will be at home this coming Saturday for their home opener with Los Angeles Southwest College at 6:00 PM.