Pirates split a pair at Canyons tournament

SANTA CLARITA -- The Orange Coast College men's basketball team wrapped up its nonconference portion of the season with a split at the College of the Canyons Tournament, falling to the host Cougars, 110-106 in double overtime before topping L.A. Trade Tech College, 80-66.

In the opener on Wednesday, Coast (7-8) led through most of the game and carried an 80-72 lead with 4:45 remaining in the game, thanks to a 3-pointer made by Ryan Fusco.

Unfortunately for the Pirates, Fusco's trey was the final field goal OCC would have in regulation as the Cougars (7-10) rattled off 10 straight points to lead, 82-80, with 1:47 remaining. Coast hit 6-of-8 from the free-throw line down the stretch and led 86-84 with seven seconds left, but COC's Michael Kalu drained a jumper with one second remaining to force overtime.

In the first OT, Parker Romo nailed a 3-pointer with 53 seconds left to put OCC ahead, 96-94, but Canyons guard Alex Sanchez came up with a key layup with 30 seconds left to tie the game and force a second overtime.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Josh Mendoza and a layup by Sean Comer helped spark an early run for the Pirates, who led 106-102 with 1:52 remaining. But, Canyons would once again rally late and hold OCC scoreless the rest of the way.

Mendoza led Coast with 29 points, while Romo added 21 and Fusco tossed in 15 to go along with nine rebounds and seven assists. For the Cougars, the starters led the way as Sanchez, Kalu, Jacob Lilly and Garrett Mike combined for 91 points, while Jason Horosny came off the bench for 14 points.

In the second game on Thursday, Coast blew past the Beavers (9-8) with a 10-0 run, turning a two-point lead into a comfortable 12-point advantage. LATTC hung tough but would not threaten the rest of the way as the OCC defense held the Beavers to just 7-of-26 shooting in the second half.

Mendoza led the way again with 17 points, while Fusco added 14 points, 11 rebounds and four steals and Nate Harding added 11 off of the bench.

Coast will open up Orange Empire Conference play on Wednesday at home against Saddleback College, beginning at 7 p.m.