Ventura Women Have Time on Their Side, 74-73

Call it Clockwork Orange.

John Taylor, women’s basketball coach at Valley College, had several other names for it.

For Ventura, it was a narrow escape, no matter what anybody calls it.

In a controversial finish to what had been mostly a sluggish affair, the Pirates beat Valley, 74-73, on Amirah Leonard’s two free throws with three seconds to play Tuesday night in a Southern California Regional second-round game at Ventura College.

“I was nervous, but I took a deep breath and that was it,” said Leonard, a sophomore guard who scored only four points after suffering an ankle injury in the first half and sitting out most of the game.

Valley (20-12) couldn’t get off a shot before the buzzer and the Ventura players formed a dog pile at midcourt in a mass of white, orange and black, the school’s colors.

The top-seeded Pirates (33-1), two-time defending state champions, on Friday will host Irvine Valley, which beat San Bernardino Valley, 62-55. The winner will advance to the state tournament March 12-14 at UC Irvine.

But they nearly were derailed.

Valley, rallying from a 38-27 deficit at halftime, outscored Ventura, 13-2, to take a 73-72 lead with nine seconds remaining on a rebound basket by Maricela Rodriguez after Porsche McAllister missed an off-balance jumper.

The clock was stopped inexplicably after Rodriguez’s basket and the officials noticed it after Leonard missed a short jumper, which was rebounded by Rodriguez. The officials called time out and, after a brief conference, put six seconds on the clock, with the Valley players and coaches arguing loudly.

But on the inbounds play, the Monarchs tried a long pass that sailed out of bounds, giving Ventura the ball under its basket. The Pirates got the ball to Leonard, who was fouled by Melolini Malaki with three seconds to play.

“That was not the play,” Taylor said. “We said not to throw it long if we couldn’t get the ball in because we had a timeout left.

“We basically won this game. We were cheated. . . . We felt we could beat them and we did. I don’t care what the score says.”

The 16th-seeded Monarchs, who lost twice to Ventura this season, took advantage of Lynda Amari’s departure because of fouls with 3:54 to play to force Ventura into the unusual position of having to scramble for survival.

Amari, a sophomore forward, scored 25 points and had seven rebounds.

Keyana Stanford added 13 points and Kelly Tobin had 11 for Ventura.

Rodriguez, a freshman forward, scored 23 points and had 12 rebounds. Guard Nyoki McKeith finished with 20 points.

“It’s unfortunate it had to come to a clock,” said Ned Mircetic, Ventura’s coach.

“It’s too bad the game had to end like that.”

Until the final few minutes, the game was pretty much a whistle-thon. The teams were called for 43 fouls and four players fouled out.

The teams combined to make 50 turnovers.