Men’s basketball: Pirates left questioning themselves

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA - This could be the game that changes the season for the

Orange Coast College men’s basketball team, so you would think the

Pirates earned a big-time victory.

No, that wasn’t the case.

After losing, 88-70, to El Camino in the semifinal of their own

tournament, the Pirates stood at the crossroads, so to speak, and were

left only to question themselves on what really went wrong and who came

to play.

“We weren’t ready to play,” OCC Coach Mark Hill said comparing the

Pirates’ 103-94 win over the Warriors on Nov. 22. “We didn’t have the

same type of effort from the first time around.”

When OCC (3-3) defeated El Camino, Pirates sophomore Nick Burwell

scored 45 points. But at the Orange Coast Invitational, Burwell didn’t

start the game because of disciplinary reasons. He missed practice

Tuesday because he said he was sick and he also did not start in OCC’s

first round 98-67 win over Victor Valley Thursday.

“I’m not used to coming off the bench,” said Burwell who finished with

15 points on 6-of-18 shooting. “I thought I was going to start today

after not starting yesterday. I thought today I should’ve started. It was

a must-win game. But there was no disagreement with the coach.”

He entered for the first time 51/2 minutes into the game. He didn’t

score until 2:05 remained in the half, a three-pointer that was followed

by another three-point basket as OCC went on a 9-0 run to close out the

half to trail by just one point, 36-35.

Though he caught a little fire at the end of the half, Burwell seemed

to be out of sync, nowhere near the performance he had against the

Warriors previously, an outing El Camino Coach Paul Landreaux called,

“The best shooting exhibition I have ever seen in junior college

basketball.”

Burwell said after Friday night’s game that his sickness had subsided

and not starting was a reason for his off-touch. He also blamed a lack of

communication with teammates and playing into El Camino’s slow-paced

game.

Yet, OCC still had a chance. Coast rallied from an 11-point deficit, 54-65, with 8:23 remaining in the game. The Pirates went on a 11-2 run to

pull within two, 67-65, but El Camino (5-3) took advantage of OCC’s

mistakes and scored eight unanswered points to have a 65-75 with less

than three minutes remaining. The Pirates fouled the Warriors and they

hit 11 of 12 free throw shot down the stretch.

“We had our chances in the second half,” Hill said. “We cut it down to

two points and then we made three silly plays in a row. That was the

thing that really got me down. We’re a better shooting team than that.”

The Pirates play for third place today at 5 p.m. against ?? The

championship game will feature L.A. Valley College? against El Camino.

And the consolation matchup will have Imperial Valley facing Cypress.

ORANGE COAST INVITATIONAL

El Camino 88, Orange Coast 70

El Camino - Brooks 25, Shumway 18, Cathey 13, Pruitt 12, Jackson 9,

Rico 7, Castillo 2, Danielson 2.

3-pt. goals - Cathey 1, Jackson 1.

Fouled out - Shumway, Castillo.

Technical fouls - None.

Orange Coast - Hagedorn 19, Burwell 15, Madrid 7, Libistre 7, Earl 6,

Rivera 6, Webster 5, McKinney 4, Meyers 1.

3-pt. goals - Burwell 3, Webster 1, Madrid 1, Libistre 1.

Fouled out - Hagedorn, Earl.

Technical fouls - None.

Halftime - El Camino, 88-70