Canyons Keeps Cool, Emerges with 76-74 Conference Victory over Bakersfield

In a back-and-forth seesaw battle, that took the entire 40 minutes to decide, the College of the Canyons men's basketball team pulled out a gritty 76-74 win over conference rival Bakersfield College on Saturday.

Playing in front of its home crowd, Canyons (11-8, 3-3) opened up an early 13-7 lead with just under 14 minutes to go in the first half.

But, as would happen throughout the night, the Renegades (12-8, 2-4) stormed back to retake the lead. Bakersfield looked strong for good stretches of time, and eventually led 23-20 with 6:45 to play in the opening half.

Not to be outdone, the Cougars put together a 7-1 run to establish their own 27-24 advantage with 2:15 to play in the half.

COC head coach Howard Fisher and the Cougars closed out the final minutes of the first half and headed to the locker room up 31-29. The scoring in these final moments would prove crucial later in the game.

Canyons forward Ricardo Greaves shot 5-for-9 from the floor in the opening period to the lead the Cougars with 11 first-half points. Greaves finished the game with a team-high 21 points.

The two teams continued to battle in the opening minutes of the second half, exchanging the lead with high frequency. Canyons pulled ahead once again when guard Brodric Smith found Greaves open for the go-ahead layup, and trip to the foul line, making it a 43-41 COC lead.

Smith finished with eight points and three assists coming off the bench for Canyons.

Refusing to go away, the Renegades continued to test the Cougar defense by evening the score at 50-50 with 9:19 to go in the game.

On COC's next possession forward Tullio Parry hit a three-point shot, and the Cougars never trailed again. Parry finished the night with 13 points, seven rebounds, two steals and three assists.

COC guard Victor Nwaba also played well down the stretch, with seven of his 15 points coming in the second half. His four assists also led the Cougars.

Bakersfield would continue to scrap and pulled to within a point several more times, but could never find enough to overtake COC.

After a dizzying final two minutes marked by free throws, substitutions and timeouts, Canyons emerged victorious.

With the win, Canyons pulls to 3-3 in the Western State Conference (WSC), South division, and currently sits in a three-way tie with Santa Monica and West L.A. for the conference's third spot.

With just eight regular season games remaining, COC will next travel to Citrus College at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28.