Starting at least in part because it was sophomore night, Brodric Smith turned in a career-best performance with 23 pts and 5 asts, leading Canyons to a surprise 79-72 win over visiting #10 Citrus on the final day of the regular season.
And in doing so, he may have extended his junior college career and his team's season. Combined with Desert's win over Rio Hondo several hours away and Pasadena's vault past Compton in the standings last night, Canyons (15-12, 7-7) now has an argument to be included when the playoff bracket is announced on Monday.
Saturday, Smith, whose previous career-high in scoring was 10 points in a win over Long Beach last November, scored 18 of his game-high 23 pts in the second half as Canyons overcame a 14-point deficit to stun Citrus (16-10, 9-5), which had already clinched at least a share of second place in the WSC-South but who needed the win to bolster its case for a home game in the first round of the playoffs.
And it all started well for Citrus, which scored the first 7 points of the game and took a 27-13 lead with about 8 minutes left in the first half. Canyons committed 7 turnovers in the game's first 5 minutes and seemed ready to quietly fade away in the face of long odds of making the postseason.
But the host Cougars got back in the game with a 9-0 run to trail, 27-22, with 3:25 left in the first half. Citrus pushed its margin back to 10 points at 32-22 following a 3-pointer by Greg Polee Jr. with under 10 seconds left in the half.
But Smith dashed the length of the court with the ball, scoring on a lay-up just ahead of the halftime horn to not only cut the Citrus lead to single digits at the break, but show just what the Owls would be up against in the second half.
When the second half started, Canyons chipped away at the deficit, getting back within five points with 16:56 left and within four after Smith went coast-to-coast again for another lay-up to make it 45-41. Then Coley Apsay drained a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game with more than 14 minutes left to play.
Tullio Parry tied the game at 54 with a steal & lay-up with 10:35 left, and Smith put Canyons in front, 61-59, with a 3-pointer with 7:21 to play.
Then after a steal by Brenden Otero, Ricardo Greaves scored on a fast break off a pass from Parry to make it 63-59. A free throw by Smith made it 64-59 with about 6 minutes to play. Smith scored off a pass from Apsay after a steal to give Canyons a 68-61 lead with about 4 minutes left. Meanwhile, Citrus hurt its own cause by missing 5 straight free throws at one point, including two front ends of one-and-one opportunities.
Canyons pushed its lead to eight when Apsay scored off a pass from Riley Honaker with 1:35 left. But Citrus battled back, getting a 3-point play from Tyler LaCour with 1:08 left to make it 70-65.
Then Smith - who made several key free throws in COC's win over Bakersfield in January - stepped to the line with a chance to close out another big Canyons win. This time he made three of four free throws in the final 34.2 seconds to help the Cougars maintain the lead. Apsay's pair of free throws with 7.2 seconds left clinched what had earlier seemed to be a most unlikely Cougar victory.
Smith led all scorers with his 23 pts, which included 3 three-pointers, and he also had 4 rebs, 5 asts and a steal. Apsay had 19 pts, 5 rebs, 3 asts and a steal. Greaves had 12 pts, Parry had 11 pts plus 7 rebs, 5 asts and 3 steals and Otero had 10 pts and 6 rebs as all five Cougar starters scored in double digits.
Wiley, whose 24 points led Citrus' amazing comeback from a 24-point deficit against conference champion Antelope Valley 10 days ago, had 13 pts, 7 rebs, 3 asts, 2 blocks and a steal. John Roach also scored 13 pts and Mark Williams scored 12.
With the win, Canyons finishes the regular season 15-12 overall, 7-7 in conference and the proud owner of two wins against automatic qualifiers (conference champions Long Beach and College of Marin). The Cougars anxiously await the verdict of the seeding committee with the hope of playing another game on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Citrus still finishes second in the WSC-South with Bakersfield's loss to Antelope Valley today. The Owls figure to start postseason play on the road on Friday.
box score
Saturday, February 21, 2015 - 3 pm
Citrus Owls 72:
3-pt fg (6): Roach 2, Polee 2, Jefferson, Wiley
Canyons Cougars 79:
3-pt fg (4): Smith 3, Apsay
Halftime Score: Citrus 32, Canyons 24
Updated Records: Canyons 15-12, 7-7 in WSC-S; Citrus (#10-South, #20-Calif) 16-10, 9-5 in WSC-S
Citrus jumped out to a 7-0 lead and led 27-13 in the 1st half.
at College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita
WSC-South
3-Justin Childress, PG - 2/7 fg, 3/4 ft, 6 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 4 pf, 7 pts
5-John Roach, SF - 4/14 fg, 3/4 ft, 2 ast, 1 stl, 4 pf, 13 pts
20-Jordan Jefferson, SG - 3/5 fg, 2 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 2 pf, 7 pts
23-Ryan Wiley, C - 5/7 fg, 2/4 ft, 7 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk, 1 stl, 2 pf, 13 pts
32-Mark Williams, PF - 4/5 fg, 4/6 ft, 6 reb, 1 blk, 1 stl, 4 pf, 12 pts
10-Dominique Walker, G - 2/4 fg, 0/1 ft, 1 reb, 2 pf, 4 pts
34-Tyler LaCour, F - 2/4 fg, 3/5 ft, 6 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 2 pf, 7 pts
30-Jordan McNellys, G - 0/3 fg, 1/3 ft, 1 stl, 1 pf, 1 pt
44-Chaunce Hill, C - 1/1 fg, 0/4 ft, 5 reb, 2 pf, 2 pts
15-Bishop Hardy, G - 0/1 fg, 0/2 ft, 1 reb, 0 pts
14-Greg Polee Jr., F - 2/2 fg, 1 stl, 1 pf, 6 pts
25-Edgardo Campos, F - 0 pts
team rebounds: 2
Totals: 25/53 fg (.472), 16/33 ft (.485), 36 reb, 15 ast, 3 blk, 8 stl, 24 pf, 72 pts
Turnovers (18): Roach 4, Childress 3, Jefferson 3, Williams 3, LaCour 3, Walker, Polee
10-Coley Apsay, PG - 7/14 fg, 4/5 ft, 5 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 2 pf, 19 pts
15-Brodric Smith, SG - 8/14 fg, 4/9 ft, 4 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl, 4 pf, 23 pts
34-Tullio Parry, SF - 3/6 fg, 5/7 ft, 7 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl, 4 pf, 11 pts
41-Brenden Otero, C - 3/8 fg, 4/4 ft, 6 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl, 3 pf, 10 pts
44-Ricardo Greaves, PF - 4/10 fg, 4/4 ft, 6 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 5 pf, 12 pts
14-Jalen Ewell, F - 1/1 fg, 0/1 ft, 1 blk, 2 pts
20-Riley Honaker, G - 0/1 fg, 1 reb, 1 ast, 1 pf, 0 pts
42-Nick Howard, C - 1/2 fg, 3 reb, 1 pf, 2 pts
24-Chance Cole, F - 0/2 fg, 1 reb, 2 pf, 0 pts
31-Victor Nwaba, G - 0/3 fg, 1 reb, 1 pf, 0 pts
30-Garrett Mike, G - 1 pf, 0 pts
team rebounds: 8
Totals: 27/61 fg (.443), 21/30 ft (.700), 42 reb, 17 ast, 2 blk, 8 stl, 24 pf, 79 pts
Fouled Out: Greaves 3:50 left
Turnovers (17): Parry 4, Apsay 3, Smith 3, Greaves 3, Otero, Cole, team 2
Canyons took its first lead with 7:21 and led the rest of the way.
3 FTs by Smith and 2 by Apsay in the last 34.2 seconds clinched it for Canyons.
