Pirates Race Past San Diego City With Another Big Run

For the second consecutive night, the VC women's basketball team used an early 20-0 run to take control of the game at the Wild West Shootout at West Los Angeles College in Culver City. Friday, the run turned a 10-10 game at the 3:41 mark of the first quarter into a 30-10 Ventura (8-5) lead with 7:19 left in the second period of VC's 91-48 win over San Diego City College in the semifinal round of the bracket. Katie Campbell poured in a career-high 32 points on 12-16 shooting while Rhiana Dougan added 21 points.

With the score tied at 10, Campbell, who was 6-9 from range in the game, hit back-to-back threes. That was followed by a triple from Davina Del Castillo and the Pirates were off and running. Campbell and Kyleesha Green each hit lay-ups in the final 30 seconds of the first period, and Ventrua led 23-10 at the quarter break.

The run continued with a triple from Dougan,  and a lay-up from Green, before Dougan put  the exclaimation point on with another chip shot. Ventura also had an 8-0 run late in the half with an inside shot from Mary Shirley, back-to-back scores from Sienna Brown, and a pair of charity tosses from Campbell.  VC led 50-23 at halftime.

It was more of the same for the Pirates in the third period, with Del Castillo, Dougan and Campbell all finding the bottom of the net in the opening minutes.  Campbell's lay-up made the score 57-23 with 7:58 remaining in the period.  Over a two-plus minute period in the middle of the quarter, VC sank four 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, one from Dougan and three by Campbell, to take complete control of the game. The Pirates led 70-25 at the 4:26 mark of the stanza and never looked back in the 91-48 win.

Campbell filled up the stat chart in the contest, in addition to her scoring.  She pulled in nine rebounds while handing out four assists with four steals on defense. Dougan made six of 11 threes in her march to 21 points and Green had 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Brown had eight points with a game-high 10 rebounds. and Shirley came off the bench to score seven points. Del Castillo had eight points and seven boards on the night. 

Ventura moves to its third tournament championship game of the season and will tip-off against rival Moorpark College at 3:00 pm in Culver City.