THE TIME IS NOW FOR MARAUDER MEN'S BASKETBALL, OPENS CONFERENCE WITH EASY VICTORY OVER BARSTOW

Photo by Bruce Jacobsen

LANCASTER - The Marauder men's basketball team opened conference play in impressive fashion by scoring its second highest point total of the season with an easy 107-81 victory over Barstow Saturday at Marauder Gymnasium.

D'Mauria Jones scored a game-high 31 points to help pace the Marauders as they shot 50 percent on the night. It was Jones' third 30-point game of the season, as he also added eight rebounds and four assists in only 26 minutes of play. Greg Floyd added 19 points and Osi Nwachukwu finished with 16.

"I don't think the score was really a big deal. We haven't been playing that well and everyone knew what was at stake and it showed in the game. We just wanted to get the win," Nwachukwu said. "I think we played really good. We got touches everywhere and got the ball to the hot person. We can still get better. We played really good defense. We know our defense is the basis of our offense. When our defense is like it was tonight, we're more than likely going to get a win."

AVC's defense clamped down and forced the Vikings to commit 25 turnovers.

The Marauders took an 11-point lead into the locker room and outscored Barstow, 54-39, in the second half.

Julian Payton finished with 11 points and eight assists and Angelo Solis added quality minutes off the bench finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds.