Barnard’s 26 Help Ventura Breeze Past West L. A., 92-64

With two of his teammates off their game, DiJon Barnard quickened the pulse of Ventura College’s basketball team Thursday night against visiting West Los Angeles.

Barnard scored a career- and game-high 26 points to lead Ventura to a 92-64 victory in a Western State Conference interdivision game.

Barnard made 12 of 17 shots and hit the offensive boards for seven put-back baskets.

Barnard helped compensate for two below-average performances. Flu-ridden Lester Neal finished with 14 points and slump-ridden Uba Satterfield scored six, more than nine points below his average.

Ventura (18-4) dominated without dominating performances from its dominant players.

West L. A. (10-9), the second-highest scoring team in the WSC, trailed by as many as 37 points, was trounced on the defensive boards and made 23 of 74 field-goal attempts.

“We didn’t look like our normal team,” West L. A. Coach Charlie Sands said. “I don’t know, but I think the word is intimidation. They just got one (offensive rebound) after another.”

Ventura jumped to a 16-2 lead and took a 36-22 advantage into halftime.

West L.A.’s Booker Waugh, the leading scorer in the WSC with a 24.2 average, picked up three fouls in the first 10 minutes and shot only five times in the first half. He finished with 16 points.

“When he got three early fouls, that kind of sealed that,” Ventura Coach Phil Mathews said.

Calvin Curry, who recently was moved into the Ventura starting lineup, scored 16 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and turned in a defensive play symbolic of the utter beating Ventura administered.

Midway through the first half, West L. A.’s James Bova went up for a jump shot. Curry blocked the ball so completely he simply jerked the ball out of Bova’s hands.

That is, of course, known as eating it with Curry.

Chris Vance came off the bench to score 11, one of nine Ventura players who scored.