NO. 14 MARAUDER MEN'S BASKETBALL TRAVEL TO NO. 6 CITRUS FOR RIGHT TO PLAY AT STATE

THIS WEEK

Wed., Mar. 1, No. 14 Antelope Valley College Marauder men's basketball (21-10, 6-4 and third in the Western State East) at No. 6 Citrus College Owls (24-4, 8-2 and co-champions of the Western State East), Round 3 State Playoffs, Glendora, 7 p.m.

THE MATCH-UPS

The Marauders moved on to the third round with a 79-67 win over No. 3 Saddleback.  In that game, Cory Dollarhide scored 19 points and was a perfect five for five from three.  In the first round the Marauders took the 89-80 win at home against Santa Monica.  Jailen Gill scored 18 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. 

Santa Monica box

Saddleback box

Citrus beat No. 11 Cerritos 79-67 in their opening second round game.

The Owls have faced the Marauder twice this season, beating them both times – the first at AVC 80-75 and the second in Glendora 81-72.  Overall the series is led 25-16 by the Marauders.

These two have met in playoffs twice before.  Last year the two met on Chelette Court in this round, though the Owls were the upstart with the No. 18 seeding and fresh off a win over the No. 2 seed.  The Marauders moved on to the Elite Eight with a 96-86 win.  In 2011, AVC traveled to Glendora for a second round game with the Owls taking the 88-63 win.

2017 Game 1

2017 Game 2

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

Unlike recent years (including last season) this game is more than just a game to get to the game that sends you to State.  The winner of this game will head to Los Positas to play in the quarterfinals of the State Championship. 

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 three game winning streak, a one game winning streak on the road and a two game losing streak to the Owls. They are on a two game winning streak in the playoffs and a one game winning streak on the road in the playoffs after snapping a six game losing steak with the win against Saddleback.

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 524-239 (.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.