Ivan Egbunike went up and over Pierce College Thursday night in the first round of the Pasadena City College-hosted 2nd Skip Robinson Classic. Egbunike slam dunked on three of his baskets as part of his 17 points to lead the Lancers to an 83-66 win at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.
Egbunike, a sophomore center, did his work off the Lancers bench as he ignited a giant scoring spurt for PCC. Tied 50-50 with 12 minutes left, the 6-foot-4 Egbunike energized the home crowd and his Lancers teammates with a slam. He added two more dunks for good measure during a 30-13 run that put the game away. Overall, Egbunike, from Georgia and the son of PCC track and field/cross country head coach Innocent Egbunike, was 8-for-9 from the field. He also had six rebuonds and blocked three shots using his tremendous vertical leap.
Two other Lancers backups joined the party as frosh guard Patric Panoosi drilled his only two attempts-a pair of 3-point bombs-and scored eight points while sophomore forward Jordan Simpson was 3-for-3 from the field for six points.
The PCC starting unit did its job too as 6-5 transfer sophomore forward Chris Blount contributed 15 points and 16 rebounds. Frosh point guard Khristion Courseault added 14 points and handed out seven assists. Chris Odionu (eight points), Josiah Woods (seven points) and Deondro Worrell (six points, five rebounds, two blocks) were the other starters.
PCC (3-2) will face Los Angeles Valley College on Friday, Nov. 16 in the championship semifinals, beginning at 7 p.m. LA Valley defeated LA Southwest, 64-60, in overtime. In other first round games, Santiago Canyon downed Mt. San Antonio, 73-58, and LA Trade Tech routed Barstow, 96-70.
