Opportunity to Improve
By Lucas Weiss | Staff Writer
Corsair men's basketball plays Ventura in a tight-fought scrimmage that goes down to the wire.
On Thursday, Oct. 26 at Corsair Gym, the Santa Monica College (SMC) men's basketball team competed in a scrimmage against the Ventura College Pirates. The Corsairs ultimately ended up losing 68-65 in a physical game that was up for grabs nearly the whole way through.
In the first half, the Corsairs appeared to be in control, thanks largely to their physical play in the paint. Forward Elijah Scranton was especially effective, thriving off of putbacks and drives to the hoop. Center David Solomon chipped in as well, knocking down multiple hook shots and bodying the opposing big man.
Despite the Corsairs’ strong play, the Pirates started to come into their own and went on a run to put themselves firmly within striking distance, down only three at the half.
In the second half, the Pirates increased their momentum, and eventually overtook the Corsairs 37-34. Despite drawing numerous fouls, the Corsairs were unable to make them pay, shooting a paltry 52% at the free-throw line.
The Pirates eventually went up by nine, their largest lead of the game thus far, before SMC was forced to call a timeout. After the huddle, the Corsairs woke up and quickly went on a 10-2 run, before taking the lead, 56-55.
From that point on, the game was neck-and-neck the whole way through. The Corsairs missed a few open looks down the stretch, but ended up with the ball down three with 20 seconds remaining. Forward Jahveon Medearis, who ended up shooting 2-6 from behind the arc, missed a three that would have tied the game at 68, and the Pirates sailed home.
After the game, power forward Elijah Scranton, who scored 16 points with 9 rebounds, explained his style of play. “I’m just trying to do anything there is for me to be able to help the team win. So that’s like rebounding, basically doing all the dirty work,” he said.
Despite the team’s loss, Scranton remained upbeat, “I think the scrimmage actually helped us a lot. It showed us that we can’t come in being cocky… We have a lot of freshmen on our team this year, so it just showed them, you got to come prepared every single day and we got to do everything that coach says on the board.”
