Pirates winning at right time with 93-83 win over Dons
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Santa Ana (10-17, 6-9) | 36 | 47 | 83 |
|
Orange Coast (17-10, 9-6) | 53 | 40 | 93 |
COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's basketball team have moved into a four-way tie for second place in the jam-packed Orange Empire Conference standings with a 93-83 win over visiting Santa Ana College on Tuesday night inside the Peterson Gym.
OCC (17-10, 9-6 in the OEC) are now neck and neck with Saddleback (17-10, 9-6), Santiago Canyon (17-10, 9-6) and Cypress (16-11, 9-6) for runner-up in the OEC standings with just one game left to play. Coast will wrap up the regular season at home against Santiago Canyon on Thursday at 7 p.m., while Cypress plays at Irvine Valley and Saddleback hosts Santa Ana. Also, Riverside (15-12, 8-7) sits just one-game behind the traffic jam and will host Golden West on Thursday as well.
Logen Howard led the Pirates with 26 points seven assists and four steals, while Jydon Hall added 19 points, six rebounds and eight assists. For the Dons (10-17, 6-9), Kody Uyesugi had 23 points, while Kelvonte Ellis added 20 points and seven rebounds.
It was a tale of two halves for the Pirates, who came out strong and led 53-36 after the first half. Coast drained nine 3-pointers over the first 20 minutes of play and that momentum carried into the second half, where Coast grabbed its biggest lead of the game (61-36) with 18 minutes left to play.
But the Dons refused to give up and over the next 15 minutes of play, they outscored the Pirates 42-20 to pull to within three at 81-78 with 3:48 left to go. But back-to-back 3-pointers by Hall helped push the Pirates back out to an eight-point cushion and the Dons did not threaten the rest of the way.
Coast finished hitting 16-of-36 from the 3-point arc and 11-of-14 from the free-throw line, while forcing 22 SAC turnovers on defense. Coast also carried a 37-19 advantage off of the bench, with Sam Hunter leading the reserves with 11 points.
