Colley, Longo Bag Double Doubles in OT Win over Pirates

Two 20 minute halves was not enough to decide a winner on Wednesday night as the Santiago Canyon College men's basketball team hit the road to face off against the Orange Coast College Pirates in conference play. The Hawks battled a pesky Orange Coast squad that found both sides battling in extra time.

The final five minutes of the second half shaped into a classic battle as the game was gridlocked at 58-all with the ball in the Hawks possession. Sophomore forward Chico Lopez handed the Hawks a two-point advantage on the ensuing possession after missing his first attempt, corralling an offensive rebound, and putting it back up and in off the glass for two points. He was fouled on the play, but missed the free throw.

Orange Coast answered with a bucketed on the following possession and the forced a Hawks turnover, but a missed layup and a rebound from freshman guard Tony Colley led to a layup on the other end from freshman guard Trevor Manning to regain the two-point advantage with just three minutes remaining.

The scoring halted for both sides throughout the remainder of the final two minutes. However, the Pirates made two of their four free throw attempts down the stretch to bring the score to 62 all with under two minutes remaining.

The Pirates took control of the ball looking to gain the lead, but Colley had other plans as he swatted away a potential go-ahead layup from Orange Coast and gave the Hawks possession. However, he committed a turnover shortly after to surrender the opportunity for the lead.

Nevertheless, Colley swiped the ball from the Pirates follwoing his blunder and brought it down the other end in hopes of setting up a game-winning bucket. The Hawks followed by missing three consecutive layups which forced overtime.

Colley continued to be active in overtime as he began the final five minutes by hitting a three pointer. He later assisted a lay-up off the hands of sophomore guard Kai Smith to give the Hawks a five-point lead at the halfway point.

Lopez followed with an easy layup, which was also assisted by Colley, backed by two free throws from Smith eventually leading to a 75-68 win.

Colley led with 19 points and 11 rebounds to earn a double-double. He added four assists, three steals and a block. Sophomore guard Joey Longo followed with a double-double by dropping 15 points and securing a game-high 15 rebounds.

Freshman guard Eli Arthurton earned his first start in 10 games and made a big difference as seen in 12 points, two assists and two steal in 33 minutes of work.

As a team, it was an uncharacteristic offensive performance as the Hawks only shot 22.7 percent from long range and carted an overall clip of 39.4 percent from the floor. They outrebounded Orange Coast 55-44, but coughed the ball up 17 times for the second-consecutive night.

Additionally, SCC shot just over 50 percent from the line, but bucketed 44 points in the paint.