Ventura Routs Canyons, 93-67

Wednesday night’s Canyons-Ventura college basketball game shaped up as a showdown between the most prolific offensive team in the Western State Conference and the WSC club with the top defense.

It wound up a one-sided rout by a Ventura team that might just be the best team in the conference--period.

Using a menacing full-court press and a blazing 65% shooting effort led by guards Stephane Brown and Reggie Phillips, the Pirates rolled, 93-67.

Ventura (18-4, 1-1 in conference play), which entered the game yielding a WSC low 68 points per game, used a healthy supply of players to wear down Canyons. The high-scoring Cougars (13-5, 2-1), averaging a WSC-best 82 points, committed 27 turnovers.

” (Their) intensity was just tremendous,” Canyons forward Reggie Bell said of the Pirate defense.

Offensively, the Pirates were as accurate as they were intense.

Brown, a 6-foot-2 freshman guard from Channel Islands High, made 10 of 11 shots to lead all players with 22 points, driving to the basket almost at will.

“I felt it, and the point guard (Vince Langston) told me he was going to keep feeding me the ball,” Brown said. Phillips, a 6-0 sophomore guard from Foothill High in Bakersfield, hit on nine of 14 for 20 points as Ventura took a 13-point halftime lead and ran away.

The Pirates connected on 41 of 63 shots. Jabari Anderson had 15 points, Michael Tate added 12 and Langston finished with nine assists.

“We have a very quick team,” said Ventura Coach Philip Mathews, who did not use a player taller than 6-5. “(Opponents) are going to have to combat our quickness.”

Paced by the torrid shooting of Brown, who made his first seven shots, Ventura streaked to a 46-33 halftime lead in a first half that featured some frantic displays of transition basketball.

Canyons tried to regroup after intermission, but Ventura quickly built a 27-point advantage (65-38) on Anderson’s three-point shot early in the second half.

Canyons, which got no closer than 19 points after that, was led by David Langley (18 points).

In the first half, Canyons committed 14 turnovers, including three in a row as Ventura turned a 20-19 deficit into a 31-20 lead with 7 minutes 23 seconds remaining.

“We didn’t do much of anything tonight except fall on our face,” said Canyons Coach Lee Smelser.

Anderson finished with three three-point shots in four attempts.