Columbia opens CVC with road win

Road wins seldom come easily in the Central Valley Conference, much less any league in basketball, but the Columbia College Claim Jumpers won’t sweat the degree of difficulty.

They nearly gave away a 10-point lead down the stretch Wednesday night but turned away College of the Sequoias 53-50 to open the CVC season.

A tip-in in traffic by 6-foot-7 Rosendo AmayaWood with about two minutes left, and a layup by Tony Williams with less than a minute to go kept Columbia (10-6, 1-0) in front.

“It gets fun when you have a group of guys who care about each other,” coach Rob Hoyt said. “They’re playing and battling together.”

Freshman guard Marquell Hubbard netted six of seven free throws en route to 15 points for Columbia, followed by Mike Meserole with 13. The game’s leading scorer was Chris Smith of COS (7-10, 0-1) with 17 points.

In other CVC results, Porterville edged Merced 80-77 in overtime, and West Hills beat Reedley 80-77 in OT. Columbia travels to West Hills on Saturday night.

This story was originally published January 7, 2015 at 9:12 PM with the headline "Columbia opens CVC with road win."