Imperial Valley Press Online

Arabs score OT win, conference title

By JAMES ARENS, Sports Writer

JOSELITO VILLERO PHOTO
Imperial Valley College’s Des Gant is fouled as he goes up for a shot against Grossmont College at IVC on Wednesday.

Thursday, February 14, 2008 12:00 AM PST

Champions always get the opposition’s best game. The Imperial Valley College men’s basketball team got Grossmont’s best game in regulation n but not in overtime.

The Griffins knocked down a long 2-point running jumper to tie the game at 51 at the end of regulation but the Arabs’ Pete Johnson scored eight of his game-high 24 points in the extra period to keep IVC perfect in Pacific Coast Conference play and extend their winning streak to 12 with a 63-57 win. Click here for video.

“In the first half we kind of relaxed a little and in the second half we regrouped,” said the sophomore Johnson. “But in overtime we just had to buckle down and get the ball down low and score.”

The Arabs won the PCC championship outright when the second-place Griffins lost their game on Saturday to Southwestern College 55-45.

IVC head coach Tyson Aye at first didn’t want to tell his team because he didn’t want them to celebrate and take their eyes off the prize of going undefeated in the PCC. But his team seems focused on finishing that goal.

“It feels great to be champs and I’m only a freshman,” said Milton Watts Jr. who had a double-double for the Arabs with 11 points and 13 rebounds. “But we want to go undefeated and I want to feel the same thing next year, too.”

The first half was cold for the Arabs with their first lead coming at the 9:43 point, 14-13. And both teams stayed close the rest of the first half with Watts giving the Arabs a 25-23 lead on a monstrous dunk as time expired in the first half.

The Arabs took the momentum from the dunk and came out with a 14-2 run to start the second half and grab a 39-25 lead at the 14:45 mark.

That was the largest lead for the Arabs in regulation but the Griffins didn’t bow out with the game still in reach.

Grossmont came back with a 10-2 run of its own to close the gap to 41-35.

“We had a few mental lapses out there and we could have made more layups in the first half,” Aye said. “But we outrebounded them 42-27 and that’s something we’ve been working on.”

The players have also noticed the difference of the hard practices and Aye pushing them hard even though they’ve already won PCC.

“Coach has been pushing us hard in practice,” Watts said of this past week. “He’s been my best coach and he’s been helping me a lot, pushing me real hard in practice.”

All that extra work helped the Arabs in overtime because Johnson scored critical baskets when they needed points.

IVC still has three more games to go in the PCC but Johnson doesn’t think about just three.

“We’ve got a whole lot more games than just three,” he said. “We have three more conference games to go but hopefully we have a lot more games after that and we can bring back a trophy back to this gym — something I don’t think these fans have ever seen.”

Wednesday’s win extended the IVC home winning streak to 20. The Arabs (19-8 13-0 PCC) travel to Palomar College at 5 p.m. Saturday in San Marcos.

Women’s basketball

Imperial Valley 63, MiraCosta 55

OCEANSIDE — The Imperial Valley College women’s basketball team beat MiraCosta College 63-55 in Pacific Coast Conference action here Wednesday.

For the Arabs, Angelica Lopez had 16 points, four rebounds, two steals and three assists. Melissa Hernandez had 15 points, four rebounds and three assists. Tasha Green added 13 points and 13 rebounds and Brenna Jackson chipped in with 10 points.

IVC (16-13, 8-3 PCC) hosts San Diego City College at 5 p.m. Saturday.