Men’s Basketball: Owls Split Pair at Home Tourney

Glendora, CA - The Citrus College Men's Basketball team split a pair of games this weekend at their annual Citrus College Holiday Tournament. The Owls opened up with a win over Victor Valley College, but dropped the second game of the weekend, an overtime heartbreaker against State #26 Southwestern College.

vs Victor Valley College

The Owls stopped a three game slide with a definitive 85-67 win over former conference mate Victor Valley College. Citrus held the Rams to just 11.1% shooting from downtown in the victory, but struggled a little bit of their own hitting just 25% of their shots from deep. The difference was ultimately the Owls ability to make the most of their opportunities and their deep bench. Citrus outscored Victor Valley 31-18 in points off turnovers, and had their bench out score the Rams' bench 41-22.

The Owls boasted a balanced scoring attack with four players finishing in double figures, and nine different players scoring at least five points. Sophomore Tyree Winborn scored a team high 13 off the bench. Sophomore James Williams added 12 points and a team high 10 rebounds, for his second double-double of the year. Sophomore Toby Okwuokei chipped in with 11 points, nine boards, and four steals. Sophomore Colin Blanchard added his best game of the season with 11 points, a game high six assists, and three steals, in 23 minutes off the bench.

vs Southwestern College

In a game that saw 12 ties and nine lead changes, the Owls came up on the short end of the stick in a 92-81 overtime loss to Southwestern College. Citrus committed just 11 turnovers, but was pounded on the glass (58-40), as they suffered their fourth loss of the year. 

The Owls would trail by as much as 10 points with 5:19 left in the second half. That's when Winborn took over for Citrus. The Owls would out-score Southwestern 20-13 over the final five minutes of action, with Winborn scoring 12 of his team high 26 in that stretch. The most important of which was a trey with eight seconds left that tied the game up at 77-77. 

In OT, Citrus scored the first bucket on a jumper by freshman Leonard Turner, but Citrus would miss eight of their last nine shots from the field, while Southwestern got 11 shots from the charity stripe. Okwuokei scored 24 points for Citrus in the loss, while Turner had 12. Sophomore Kendal Frey finished with seven points, grabbing a team best seven rebounds, and handing out a team high four assists.

Up Next 

Citrus (6-4), will be back in action this coming Friday when they host Ventura College (7-4) at 3:00 PM. Live Stats and a Live Video Stream will be available.