Orange Coast College

Pesky Pirates hang tough, but fall to Gauchos

Friday, January 19, 2007

COSTA MESA - The Orange Coast College men's basketball overcame an early 13-point run by the Saddleback Gauchos to take a lead late in the first half.

It was the 13-point run in the second half that did them in as the bigger and vertically-gifted Gauchos used that last scoring outburst to outlast the pesky Pirates 75-61 on Friday in Orange Empire Conference action.

Saddleback (18-5, 5-0 in the OEC), ranked No. 6 in Southern California and 10th in the state, looked like it was going to blow the hosts out of their own gym, jumping out to a 13-0 lead before the Pirates (12-11, 3-2) began to find their shooting touch.

Thanks to some hot shooting from downtown, the Pirates ripped off 14 of the next 18 points to get to within three at 17-14.

Saddleback pushed the lead back up to eight before back-to-back-to-back treys by Josh Poitevin (two) and Mario Caetano gave OCC its first (and last) lead of the game, 27-26.

Led by the play of 6-foot-8 center Tremaine Ford, who's heading to Cal State Northridge following his Gaucho tenure, Saddleback closed out the half with a 6-0 run to take a 32-27 lead. The sophomore finished the game with 24 points on 9-of-10 shooting down low and 6-of-12 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed nine rebounds.

OCC got to within two at 36-34 with 15:30 left in the game before another big Gaucho run (18-5) over the next 8:12 allowed Saddleback to cruise from there.

The Pirates were led by 12 points from Poitevin and 10 points each from Brian Molina and Shaun Engle.

While OCC did out 3-point the Gauchos 11-2, the Bucs were topped convincingly from the free-throw line by the driving, posting Gauchos, 19-2. Saddleback shot 61 percent from the field, topping its total from the charity stripe (59.4 percent).

OCC will return to action on Wednesday at Riverside, beginning at 5:30 p.m.