A thank you to DRinCA for this

From DRinCa comes his writeup of one of the SoCal JUCO Showcase pairings from last weekend:

"Merritt 42, Antelope Valley 32

Tyrell Alcorn, Arinze Chidom and D.J. Kennedy each scored 8 pts and SoCal native Brandon Russell made a pair of free throws late to clinch a 10-point win for Merritt over Antelope Valley.

It was a defensive-minded slugfest, especially in the first half, when points were few and far between for both teams. AVC started the game with 6 turnovers on its first 8 possessions and neither team scored in the first 5:20.

Merritt took the largest lead of the first half for either team at 13-8 after a 2-point free throw by Russell, and the Thunderbirds led, 15-11, at the break. Merritt led despite shooting just 22% (4/18) from the floor in the half as AVC was shooting just 33% (5/15) with 10 turnovers.

Both teams settled into more of a flow in the second half, and Merritt held a 20-15 lead after a 3-pointer by Kennedy. AVC went on a 9-0 run to lead, 24-20, after a jumper by Cory Dollarhide, but Merritt answered with a 12-2 run to lead, 32-26.

AVC got within four at 34-30 when Chidom banked in a shot with just under a minute to go to make it 36-30. Alcorn made one 2-point free throw and Russell, who attended El Camino Real HS in Woodland Hills before heading up to Oakland, made two 2-point free throws in the final 36.7 seconds to clinch the win for Merritt.

Reggie Byers was AVC's top performer coming off the bench for 8 pts, 4 rebs and 4 asts. Jailen Gill had 7 pts, 3 rebs, 2 asts, a block and a steal, and Antone Warren had 6 pts, 6 rebs and 2 blocked shots."