Hancock Men's Basketball Battles No. 15 Moorpark Wednesday

The Hancock men's basketball team will hit the road for two Western State Conference games this week. The Bulldogs start the week 1-1 in conference play and 9-10 overall.  Hancock will play at No. 15 Moorpark on Wednesday, January 13, at 7 p.m. before traveling to Ventura on Saturday, Jan. 16 for a 7 p.m. contest.

Hancock split its two games last week. The Bulldogs overcame a 10-point second half deficit to win an overtime thriller 79-77 against Santa Barbara City College.  Freshman guard Malik Rhodes led the Bulldogs with 28 points and five assists. Sophomore Matt Willkomm poured in 18 points to go with eight rebounds and three assists. Shane Carney added 11 points and four assists, while freshman forward Tim Ford added seven points and 13 rebounds.  Hancock dropped a 95-86 decision to Oxnard last Saturday. Rhodes led all scorers with 30 points, while Carney added 19 points, five rebounds and six assists. Willkomm added 11 points and seven boards, and Marcellus Garrick finished with 10 points. Ford led Hancock with 13 rebounds.

Moorpark is off to a 2-0 start in conference and is 13-5 overall. The Raiders are ranked No. 15 in California and No. 8 in the Southern California Regional. The Raiders defeated Oxnard last week 87-75 behind 23 points from Larry Bush. They followed that with an 84-79 victory over Ventura. Moorpark has won nine straight games, including wins over ranked teams like Fresno and San Francisco. Moorpark has five players averaging 10 or more points per game led by Bush at 16.3 points per game, followed by Jeremiah Grey (13.5), Justin Brooks (13.2), Reggie Dixon (11.1) and Justin Eisen (10.8).

Ventura starts the week 10-8 overall and 0-2 in league. The Pirates opened conference with a two-point loss against Cuesta followed by a five-point loss to Moorpark. Sophomore guard Elijah Brown is the Pirates leading scorer at 19.6 points per game. He is shooting 40 percent from three-point range. Steven Bush shoots 38 percent from three-point territory and averages 8.8 points.