JC Men’s Basketball: Hagger propels Pirates
In his initial athletic assignment at Orange Coast College, freshman Davasyia Hagger was required to come down with the ball when he caught it. But since transitioning from football to basketball, the all-conference receiver is enjoying his opportunities to immediately flush his aerial receptions through the basket to complete alley-oop dunks.
Hagger did just that during an impressive second-half performance Wednesday to help the host Pirates earn a 73-61 Orange Empire Conference men’s basketball win over Fullerton.
Hagger, a preferred football walk-on at Oregon in 2013, who played his only year of high school football as a senior at Beaverton High in Oregon, had 15 of his career-high 25 points after halftime on Wednesday.
During one stretch of a little more than five minutes, Hagger scored 12 consecutive points for OCC (6-14, 4-4 in conference). And in a span of just more than 12 minutes, Hagger had six of his team’s eight field goals, with the other two coming on put-backs off Hagger misses after he broke down the defense in the paint.
“We were attacking and it opened up some gaps that we were just trying to exploit,” said the 6-foot-5 forward, who missed the team’s first six games while finishing the football season. Hagger then sprained an ankle in his first basketball contest, sidelining him for two games and limiting his minutes in two others. Still, he is leading the team in scoring (13.3 per game), and rebounding (8.6) and is shooting 52.7% from the field.
Hagger made seven of 10 field-goal attempts after halftime to help OCC regain control after seeing its once-16-point cushion pared to 48-43 with 13:33 left in the game. He was 11 for 18 from the field on the night.
“He has a lot of potential,” OCC Coach Steve Spencer said of the athletic Hagger, who said he landed at OCC after typing “nice community colleges in California” into a search engine, upon electing to leave Oregon. “He made some sense out of some things tonight [improvising offensively, while either facing up to drive past defenders, or backing in from the block to create high-percentage shots]. That’s what he can do and what he has to do and he did it tonight.”
Hagger, whom Spencer said averaged double-figure points and rebounds in high school, said he is enjoying his second sport at the school.
“Initially, I was just going to play [basketball] for fun,” said Hagger, who had 43 receptions for 620 yards and six touchdowns in the fall. “Now, we’re playing pretty well and I’m playing pretty well. I think I’m going to weigh whatever offers [in either sport] are placed in front of me and pick whatever is the best opportunity for me.”
Hagger proved to be the best opportunity for an OCC offense that became somewhat stagnant after converting 40.5% of its field-goal tries and committing just two turnovers en route to building a 43-31 halftime advantage.
A 9-0 Fullerton run early in the second half pulled the Hornets (3-20, 1-7) within five. But after Hagger was personally responsible for an 8-0 OCC surge that included an aforementioned alley-oop slam and ended with 9:42 left, Fullerton never got closer than eight.
Freshman DeAndre Page had 16 points and led the Pirates with eight rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots.
Sophomore Brad Buchignani chipped in 12 points, five rebounds, and four assists, and freshman Deion Page, DeAndre’s twin, contributed 10 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Sophomore Ahmon Metdals came off the bench to produce four points, six rebounds and six assists for the Pirates, who had lost three of their previous four games coming in.
“There were stretches, like all season, when we played good basketball,” Spencer said after his team forced 17 turnovers and committed only six. “But there were stretches when we didn’t play with energy, intelligence or togetherness.”
The victory leaves OCC tied with Riverside in fourth place, one-half game behind Santa Ana (4-3) in the conference standings that are topped by Saddleback (7-1) and Irvine Valley (5-2).
The Pirates visit Riverside on Friday at 5 p.m. in the first of four remaining regular-season conference games.
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Orange Empire Conference
Orange Coast 73, Fullerton 61
Ful – Clark 8, McCloskey 5, Johnson 10, Magee 30, Nelson 5, Thompson 2, Warren 1.
3-pt. goals – McCloskey 1, Nelson 1.
Fouled out – Magee.
Technicals – None.
OCC – Hagger 25, DeA. Page 16, Buchignani 12, Dei. Page 10, Nguyen 3, Charbonier 3, Metdals 2, Egberaure 2.
3-pt. goals – DeA. Page 2, Buchignani 1, Nguyen 1, Dei. Page 1.
Fouled out – Nguyen.
Technicals – None.
Halftime – 43-31, OCC.