Orange Coast College

No. 4 Pirates rally to top Cypress

Thursday, February 01, 2007

CYPRESS - After going free-throw-less in last week's blowout win against Golden West, the OCC Pirates needed every last charity shot they could find in Wednesday's 63-52 win over host Cypress in Orange Empire Conference action.

Thanks to some early ice-cold shooting the No. 4 Pirates (23-3, 9-0 in the OEC), found themselves on the wrong end of a 23-8 run early in the first half.

OCC shot 22.2 percent from the field in the game's first 20 minutes (8-of-36), but a 15-8 run to close out the first half made the deficit not as daunting as the Pirates trailed 31-23 at the break.

With the Pirates' defense leading the way, the conference's first-place team put together a championship-caliber run, erasing all of the Chargers' lead with 12:14 left in the game. From there, hot shooting from the free-throw line (18-of-19 for the game) kept the lead on the side of the Pirates.

Courtney Ford led OCC with 20 points (9-of-9 from the FT line), while Robin Smith added 15 points and six steals, equaling teammate Rachael Maulit for game-high.

OCC outscored Cypress 40-21 in the second half to pull out the win, despite scoring 20 points under its season average of 83.3 points per game.

Brandi Thomas had 21 points to lead the way for Cypress, while SawAnn Bryan added chipped in 13.

On Friday, the Pirates will host Fullerton in a battle between two of the top-five teams in Southern California. OCC holds a two-game lead on the fifth-ranked Hornets coming into the game. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.