Slow Start Dooms Owl Against #7 Antelope Valley

Lancaster, CA — The Citrus College Men's Basketball program shot a miserable 24.1% from the floor in the opening half of their road game at State #7 Antelope Valley College. That compared with a 52.8% effort by the game's host doomed the Owls in what was a 78-96 loss for Citrus College on Saturday night.

Citrus would score the game's first bucket, but almost immediately fell into a hold shortly thereafter. The Owls would keep it close though, trailing by just one with just over eight minutes to play in the first half. That's when the Marauders turned it on. Antelope Valley went on a 17-1 run that wasn't broken up until a pair of free-throws by sophomore Chaunce Hill with 3:13 left in the first half. 

The Owls would do it's best to close the gap in the second half, after trailing 50-28 at the break, but the task proved too tall. Citrus matched Antelope Valley shot for shot in the second half, even outscoring them by four in the final 20 minutes of play, but it wasn't enough based on the first half performance.

In the loss, Citrus was paced by sophomore Dominique Walker's team high 16 points. Sophomore's Justin Childress and Jordan Jefferson each added 14, while Hill had 12 and a team high 7 boards. 

With the loss, Citrus drops to 9-7 on the season and 2-2 in WSC South play. The Owls will try and regather themselves this coming Wednesday when they travel to Los Angeles Valley College (8-9, 2-2) for a 5:00 PM tip.