MARAUDER MEN'S BASKETBALL UPSET IN VENTURA

Photo by Bruce Jacobsen

VENTURA - No need to panic. All is well.

It's still early in the season. Of course there will be some setbacks.

Maybe Friday evening was one of those for the Marauder men's basketball team.

Riverside upset AVC with an 86-75 victory over the Marauders in the semis of the Ventura Tournament.

The shocking part is that the Marauders, which has owned the Ventura Tournament, will not be playing in the finals on Saturday. Entering Friday night's contest, AVC, ranked No. 11 in the state, had won five of the last six Ventura tournaments, including the last two.

Unfortunately, a poor shooting night sends the Marauders into the third-place game against the host team on Saturday.

Nothing seemed to go right for AVC (1-1) on the night as it shot only 39 percent from the field, 27 percent from 3-point range and a dismal 54 percent from the free throw line. Of course, 21 turnovers didn't help either.

Charles Hall led the Marauders with 19 points in only 20 minutes on 6-of-13 shooting, including three 3-pointers. Cory Dollarhide added 15 points.

"We just got out worked. It was effort, but we didn't work as hard as we usually do," Hall said. "We didn't shoot the ball well. Our shooting tonight won't get it done at all. It wa a nice wake up call. Better now than in conference.  We had a team meeting and talked about some things. We'll be ready (for Ventura). Third place is not what we wanted, but we're taking it game by game."