Owls Trickle Past Tough Pasadena

Rancho Cucamonga, CA - The Citrus College Men's Basketball team, ranked #17 in the State, overcame a seven point deficit with seven minutes to go to trickle past a tough Pasadena City College squad. The Owls coalesced late and finished with a five point win 82-77. 

 Things started out just fine for Citrus, as they scored 11 of the first 14 points of the game, jumping out to an 11-3 lead after a triple by sophomore Kenneth Cyprian and a layup by sophomore Tyler LaCour. The Lancers proved to be a resilient bunch though, slowly chipping away at the Owl lead until they grabbed it for themselves 16-14 at the 12:10 mark. The Owls would trail the remainder of the first half including by as much as 10 points with 5:11 to go. Citrus would cut that down a bit, but went into halftime down 38-45. 

In the second half, Citrus quickly tied the game up after a three by freshman Jeremy Smith and steal and layup by him on the very next possession. The game would be tied up three more times over the next four minutes until a pair of free-throws with 12:44 by Smith briefly gave the Owls the lead back 55-53. The two schools would trade the lead back and forth over the next few trips down their end of the floor, before Pasadena seemingly took control back of the game, going up six with 9:24 to play. 

It would take the Owls, nearly seven minutes before they could pull back into contention, as a jumper by LaCour with 3:31 pulled it to within one. After a miss by Pasadena on their next trip down the way, Williams hit a huge three that put the Owls up 76-74. The Lancers would twice to pull to within one point of Citrus, both times after free-throws, but the Owls closed out the final minute with a jumper by Smith and two free-throws by Williams to seal the victory.

In the win, Citrus was paced by Smith's game high 25 points. LaCour added 15 points and 11 boards, and Cyprian had 11. Smith would also dish out a team high eight assists, while LaCour blocked a trio of shots. 

With the win, Citrus improved to 14-4 overall. The Owls will be back in action on Sunday when they take on Long Beach City College in the Consolation Championship game at 12:00 PM.