Host Ventura Holds Off Riverside, 67-53, in Nonconference Action Friday

VENTURA -- Returning to action for the first time in almost two weeks, the Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers men's basketball team fell behind and couldn't recover as the host Ventura College (VC) Pirates took an early lead and went on to post a 67-53 nonconference win Friday evening (Jan. 2) at the Athletic Events center on the VC campus.

Second-year RCC head coach Phil Mathews, who was the Pirates' head coach for ten seasons (1985-86 through 1994-95), received a warm reception from the appreciative Ventura crowd for his accomplishments as VC coach, to wit: state championships in 1986-87 and 1994-95.

While a case could have been made about the mentor (Mathews) going up against one of his former student-athletes, current VC head coach Joey Ramirez, who is in his fourth season at the Pirates' helm, Ventura was the better team in this game.. Ramirez played two seasons under Mathews (1992-93 and 1993-94).

It was Ventura's second win of the season over RCC. Previously, VC defeated the Tigers, 67-58, in a consolation semifinal (Nov. 15, 2014) of the Alvin Hunter Classic at San Bernardino Valley College. (Ironically, another coaching stop of Mathews.)

Ventura (7-9), which never trailed, broke a 4-4 tie with an 8-0 spurt for a 12-4 lead with 13:33 to play in the first half. The Pirates extended their advantage to 24-9 with 8:15 remaining before settling for a 38-24 halftime lead.

Riverside (5-10) closed to within 42-32 with 15:26 to play before VC upped its lead to 57-40 with 7:57 left.

The game, which had only 30 fouls and eight timeouts called, finished at 8:43 p.m.

Four Pirates scored in double figures, led by Eric Davis (Oxnard / Pacifica HS), who came off the bench to pop in a team-high 17 points. Also scoring in double figures were starting sophomore forward Vondel Faniel (Palmdale / William Knight HS) with 16 (and a game-high 11 rebounds), freshman guard Jamal Lewis (Brooklyn, NY / Elkins HS), also with 16, and starting freshman guard Elijah Brown (Newark, NJ / Irvington HS) with 11 points.

For Riverside, freshman forward Viali Chamberlain (Miami, FL / Miami Norland HS '13) came off the bench to drop in a game-high 23 points and also added a team-high eight rebounds.

RCC will open Orange Empire Conference (OEC) competition on Wednesday, Jan. 7, when it hosts the Fullerton College Hornets in the second half of a twin feature at 7 p.m. (note new time for OEC games). The RCC women will host Fullerton at 5 p.m.

-30-