Ventura Wins, 83-76, Advances to State Finals : College basketball: Pirates withstand Imperial Valley’s second-half rally, find themselves in familiar spot.

VENTURA —  It’s getting to be a habit, but one Ventura College men’s basketball Coach Philip Mathews doesn’t want to kick.

For the third consecutive season, the Pirates advanced to the state championships, this time with an 83-76 victory over Imperial Valley in a final game of the Southern California regional before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 3,500 Saturday night at Ventura.

Ventura (34-2) will play a first-round game Thursday in the state final eight at the UC Irvine Bren Center.

The semifinals are Friday and the title game is Saturday.

But getting there wasn’t easy.

The Pirates had to work for everything they got against Imperial Valley (21-12) in an extremely physical game, but one in which the visiting coach didn’t think his team got some crucial foul calls in the waning moments.

“I thought our guys were getting hammered and we didn’t get the calls and then (the Pirates) are making baskets at the other end,” Imperial Valley Coach Jeff Deyo said. “Those were big turnarounds.”

After cutting the Ventura lead to 43-42 on a three-point basket by Ernie Garcia at the halftime buzzer, the Arabs saw Ventura score the first five points after intermission.

But the Pirates, who had not trailed, found themselves tied, 53-53, with 15 minutes 20 seconds to play in the second half and were looking up at a one-point deficit, 58-57, when center Joshua Holt made a basket on an offensive rebound about three minutes later.

But then the Pirates pulled away in a flash, behind the shooting of forward Brandon Jessie, the rebounding of center Michael Tate and the defense of forward Steve Amar.

Jessie scored 14 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and Tate pounded the boards to finish with 17 rebounds. Amar, who scored 16 points, played a superb defensive game and finished with six steals.

“I was just anticipating a lot of the things they were going to do,” said Amar, a transfer from Oxnard College.

“Luckily, I was at the right place at the right time.”

Mathews said the Pirates needed Amar to step it up an additional notch because the team’s three leading players--Tate, Jessie and point guard Ramirez--were struggling in the first half.

“(Amar) had to play well tonight,” Mathews said. “We could not make a run at (the Arabs).”

The Pirates tried, but could not gain more than a nine-point edge (39-30) on Imperial Valley in the first half.

Imperial Valley used a tenacious man-to-man cover to harass the Pirates and a full-court press that had Ramirez running for his life.

“There was nothing I could do about it,” said Ramirez about the aggressive defense the Arabs deployed on him.

“All I could do was play. . . . I wanted to play as hard as I could and take this team to Irvine.”

It was the final home game for Ramirez, a sophomore from Santa Paula High, who has been one of the catalysts for the Ventura squad the past two seasons. He finished with 17 points.

For Ventura, it was the second victory over Imperial Valley this season. The Pirates beat the Arabs, 90-71, in a nonconference game in November. but Mathews said Imperial Valley improved noticeably.

Forward Maurice Ramsey finished with 14 points and guard Andre Lewis added 13 for Imperial Valley.