NO. 14 MARAUDER MEN'S BASKETBALL TRAVEL TO NO. 3 SADDLEBACK FOR SECOND ROUND OF PLAYOFFS

THIS WEEK

Sat., Feb. 25, No. 14 Antelope Valley College Marauder men's basketball (19-10, 6-4 and third in the Western State East)  at No. 3 Saddleback Vaqueros (24-4, 10-2 and second in the Orange Empire Conference), Mission Viejo, 7 p.m.

THE MATCH-UPS

The Marauders moved on to the second round with a 89-80 win at home against Santa Monica.  Jailen Gill scored 18 points and pulled down 16 rebounds.  Saddleback had a first round bye based on their No. 3 seeding.

Saddleback beat the Marauders 82-80 in AVC's first home game of the season.  Overall the series is led 10-7 by the Vaqueros.

These two have met in playoffs once before.  In 1998 AVC also traveled to Mission Viejo and came away with the biggest loss by Newton Chelette team in playoffs, 99-80.

THE MARAUDERS

The 2016-17 team, have played the tough teams tough and the weaker teams weakly and pretty much everything in between. Tied for the lead in the Western State East at the turn high on an eight game win streak that included a MiraCosta Tournament title, AVC then went 3-4 to drop all the way to third.

One of those losses was to LA Valley, which they had beat the first time around by 40, and one of those wins was by two to the basement dwelling Victor Valley at home.

The 116-74 final regular season win over Glendale may well signal the Marauders have finally figured it out, and are preparing to make a playoff run worthy of early in the season when they were ranked as one of the top teams in the state.

The spark for the Marauders usually comes in the form of a Charles Hall pass to just about anyone.  Watch for that second person to take over the offense whether it's Cory Dollarhide from three, Antone Warren controlling underneath, Jailen Gill using his athleticism both for scoring and rebounding or D'Mauria Jones hitting from three and finishing the fast break.

BRACKET

The winner will play No. 6 Citrus which beat No. 11 Cerritos 79-67.  If Saddleback wins, they host, if AVC wins they will travel to Glendora on Wenesday.

The Marauders have not really seen much of this bracket, with the exception of Western State east champions No. 6 Citrus, which AVC would have to meet if the Owls win their second round game against Cerritos and the Marauder figure a way past both Santa Monica and Saddleback. 

Get the full bracket here.

STREAKS

The Marauders have now made playoffs for 27 of the last 28 seasons, and the last 10 straight. AVC is on a two game winning streak, a one game losing streak on the road and a four game losing streak to the Vaqueros. They are on a one game winning streak in the playoffs and a six game losing streak on the road in the playoffs.

ALL-CONFERENCE

Marauder Men's Basketball, which finished third in the Western State East, place two players on the All-Conference team.

Those named included Jailen Gill, who led the Marauders in scoring and was second in rebounding - though tops during the conference season and Antone Warren who led the Marauders in rebounding and was third in scoring.

Warren has a 63.0 field goal shooting percentage, which is currently fourth in the state, and was tops in conference.  Gill sports a 61.7 percentage, which was second in conference.

Cory Dollarhide, who leads the Marauders in three pointers and is the current AVC career leader in free throw percentage was named Honorable Mention.

JOHN TAYLOR

John Taylor is in his seventh season as the Marauder head coach, and is in his seventh playoffs with the team.  In 2013-14 he guided the men to the best record in southern California and a Western State South title. He was also named WSS Coach of the Year. Taylor was named WSC women's Coach of the Year in 1995-96, and was tabbed as the Foothill Conference women's Coach of the Year in 2002-03 and 2003-04. He has crafted a 523-239 (.685) record overall, and his teams now play in the playoffs for the 21st straight season, and his teams have won 20 games in 15 straight seasons (eight with the women). He now has the distinction of being the second coach to coach both a men's and women's team to the final four. He did it with the Marauder women in 2007, but lost in the semi-finals to Pasadena and then with the men in 2012, losing to Yuba in the semifinals. Tom Gilcrest of Sequoias won state championships with both the Giant's men and women. Taylor is 159-55 (.743) as the Marauders' men's coach In the last regular season game in 2016-17, Taylor won his 400th game as a Marauder head coach. He began the 2010-11 season as both men's and women's coach. His women Marauder teams were 241-103 overall and included six Foothill Conference championships - four straight from 2003 to 2006 and this season. AVC finished second in the Foothill Conference in his first two seasons, before 2002-03's undefeated in conference champion team and again this season. He guided AVC to ten straight seasons of 19 wins or more and the playoffs each year. In 2006-07 he became the winningest Marauder women's basketball coach with win 143 and in 2007-08 season coached the Marauders to his 100th Foothill Conference win.