PC men fall to Fresno City

Juddon Carter hit a three-pointer to give the Porterville College men’s basketball team a 3-0 lead. Elijah Cunningham scored to put PC up 5-3. After that it was all downhill for the Pirates.

Porterville College was simply outmatched by Central Valley Conference power Fresno City in a 109-63 loss on Wednesday at PC. But all PC coach T.J. Jennings can ask from his team is to keep fighting and he says that’s what it’s doing.

“My guys will never quit,” Jennings said. “That’s always going to be something you see. I can honestly say we’re playing better basketball right now than we were earlier in the season. We’ll never lay down.”

Fresno put on a three-point shooting clinic, going 20-of-33 from beyond the arc. In the second half, Fresno shot 12-of-17 (70.6 percent) from beyond the arc and 20-of-29 (69 percent) overall. Et Hammock and Olajuwon Garner each hit 6-of-9 threes for Fresno (15-6, 3-0).

Fresno led 31-14 when Carter hit his second three to bring PC to within 31-17. After Fresno took a 54-23 lead, Porterville did go on a 9-0 run to close to within 54-31 at halftime. Carter hit another three and Robert Shackelford made a steal and a layup during the run.

But the Rams hit their first four threes of the second half to go up 66-33 before Cameron Allen scored on a drive and was fouled. He converted the three-point play to pull the Pirates to within 66-36. After Fresno went up 72-36, Elijah Henningham scored on a dunk for PC to make it 72-38.

Down 109-57, PC did finish the game by hitting back-to-back threes by Dominic Avila and Joseph Yarbrough for the final margin. Yarbrough scored 16 points, Carter had 11 points, Hill Allen scored eight points, Avila had seven points and Shackleford added six points for PC.
Porterville was playing without one of its top players, Tyrone Hall, who was out with a groin injury. Jennings said Hall should be able to play on Saturday at College of the Sequoias.

“He’s definitely a big piece to what it is we do,” Jennings said. “It will definitely help out to have him back.”