MARAUDERS MEN'S BASKETBALL ELIMINATED FROM STATE TOURNAMENT, 74-54 BY STATE'S TOP TEAM

The stone finally missed its mark.

All the way to the State Quarterfinals, David – in the form of AVC's men's basketball team, the lowest seeded team, continued to pick off the top seeds on their quest, beating first No. 3 Saddleback and then No. 6 Citrus.

But the Marauders could not slay the No. 1 team in the state – CC San Francisco, in large part because their arsenal either failed them or spent time sitting on the bench, being eliminated the state championship with a 74-54 loss.

The No. 2 shooting team in the state at 50.1 percent could only hit 39.3 percent  (22 of 59) for the game but at one point it was as low as 31 percent.  And to start the second half AVC could just muster two of the first 10 shots as the Rams shot out to a 20 point lead and kept going on their way to trying to repeat as state champions.  San Francisco shot a very AVC-like 51.7 percent from the field.

The 54 points in the game was AVC's lowest point output this season. The previous low was 64 in a road loss to LA Valley on Feb. 8.

Cory Dollarhide, AVC's top three point shooter, did not play, sitting out with a strained right hamstring.  And Antone Warren only played eight minutes of the first half, and without his inside presence, San Francisco was able to pull down 16 offensive rebounds, many which led to Rams put backs and 18 points.

Likewise with rebounds, it was the worse Marauder performance of the season, with only 21. The previous low was 27 in a early season loss to Riverside.

The Marauders also did not help themselves with ball handling, committing 16 turnovers, but that was outdone by the Rams, who gave up the ball 24 times.

D'Mauria Jones led the Marauders with 13 points, while Jailen Gill added 12 and five rebounds.  Warren scored just seven in his limited action, and grabbed five rebounds.

"We really showed heart to win on the road in some hostile environments. Tonight was a tough loss. We went away from what we've been doing the last few games and it really hurt us," AVC's Charles Hall said. "Losing Cory (Dollarhide) this game hurt us so much. He had been our glue this whole season."

The first half saw the Marauders shoot just 39 percent – a full 11 points below their average.

At one point, AVC went over five minutes without a field goal and trailed by 12.

They were able to draw within three with five minutes left, but AVC went back to it's problematic way and with a combination of turnovers and lack of defensive rebounds, allow San Francisco to get to nine, 35-26 at the half.