Pirates Continue Improvement With Pierce at Home

The Pirates' women's basketball continued its improvement, making easy work of visiting Los Angeles Pierce College 94-23 Saturday night at the Athletic Event Center. Sofia Torres-Reyes scorched the nylon with 24 points, including four made three's, and Kylie Gallick had a big-time double-double of 16 points and 17 rebounds to lead five players in double-figures. The VC defense, ranked No. 8 in the state, held the Brahmas 10 points under their season average in the victory.

The Pirates (11-10, 6-1) had a little difficulty getting started, misfiring on their first six shots as Pierce grabbed the early 2-0 lead. Sam Martinez converted a dime from Maddie Ozbourn along the baseline for VC's first bucket of the game at the 6:41 mark of the first quarter, and Torres-Reyes hit from range to give Ventura the lead for good on the next possession.  The Brahmas scored on a putback on their next trip down the floor, and Torres-Reyes hit another three to send the Pirates off top the races. Ventura held Pierce scoreless for the rest of the period while scoring on eight straight possessions to take a 28-4 lead after 10 minutes of play.

The run continued into the second as they scored on four more possessions, making the score 38-4 on Gallick's lay-up assisted by Jasmine Glover. After a rare empty offensive trip, Edelhart hit a pull-up jumper to complete a 35-0 run for Ventura over nine minutes of game time. Ozbourn then scored twice inside and Torres-Reyes had a steal to a lay-up and a putback to make it 48-8 at halftime for VC.

After a relatively quiet first half, Kenya Edelhart made her presence known early in the second half. On the Pirates' first possession she scored on a lay-up and took an "excessive contact" foul, making two free throws for a 4-point play, then assisted a bucket by Gallick inside.  Edelhart followed with another drive and score, and added another dime to Ozbourn for two for a 58-10 score for VC with 5:52 remaining in the period. Torres-Reyes added another theft to an easy score, followed by a free throw from Glover and another close bucket by Ozbourn. Alyssandra Lacanilao connected twice from the free throw line and Glover had a steal and a lay-up with 1:07 on the clock. Martinez closed out the scoring in the final minute of play as Ventura led 70-18 after three quarters of play.

Ventura kept the hammer down with reserves playing most of the minutes against the Brahmas in the final 10 minutes, posting the 94-23 victory.

Martinez came off the bench to score 14 points for VC with four steals and three assists and Ozbourn netted 11 with eight boards and four steals.Edelhart finished with 10 points and five dimes while Glover scored nine points with five steals.

Ventura totaled season highs in assists with 22 and steals with 21, as they posted their highest point total of the year.

Up next, the Pirates will travel to Santa Barbara for a make-up contest on Monday Feb. 7. Tip-off against the Vaqueros is set for 6:00 pm and no spectators will be allowed at the SBCC Sports Pavilion.