Hancock coach Ralph Gorton believes Dwight Jones, Moorpark College's sophomore point guard, is the WSC North's lone Division I-caliber player.

Dwight Jones, the point guard on Moorpark College men's basketball team, on the Raiders' 71-60 loss to first-place Cuesta Wednesday night on Raider Pavilion:

"We couldn't execute. We couldn't put the ball in the bucket tonight. Our effort on defense was good, it was just our offense."

Jones mustered six points, all in the second half, after putting up 31 in Saturday's win at Hancock.

With the game hanging in the balance, Moorpark had one field goal in a 11-minute stretch in the second half.

Three days after leaving the loss at Oxnard College with a wrist injury, Moorpark College point guard Dwight Jones made sure the Raiders did something first-place Ventura and Cuesta couldn't do -- win in Santa Maria.

The sophomore scored 31 points to lead Moorpark to a 66-58 win at Hancock, which pulled them within one game of first place.

"We had to (win), or else," said Jones. "That was it. It was do or die."

Jones was 4-of-9 3-point shooting and 7-of-8 shooting from the free throw line.

"I got to the rack, too," said Jones.

Sophomore point guard Dwight Jones hit a pair of free throws with 0.4 seconds to play as the Moorpark College men's basketball team held off Hancock, 65-64, Wednesday night at Raider Pavilion.

Moorpark (11-6) had lost its previous four games without head coach Remy McCarthy, who is recovering from spinal surgery.

McCarthy actually attended the Ventura-Cuesta game and was a halftime guest of Danny Page's on the HomefieldSports.com broadcast.

Matt Hornbuckle had 14 points and Redmond Parker added 12 points, but it was the quick thinking of sophomore point guard Dwight Jones who pushed the Moorpark College men's basketball team to 2-0 with a 82-80 win at College of the Canyons Saturday night in Santa Clarita.

After grabbing a rebound under his own basket with four seconds to play in a tie game, Jones looked up court and found teammate Shane Foster for an uncontested, game-winning layup at the buzzer.

"It was an unbelievably good play by Dwight," said Moorpark coach Remy McCarthy.

"With four seconds to go, he had the presence of mind to look up rather than putting his head down and going himself."

The buzz at Raider Pavilion is that the Moorpark College men's basketball team has its best team since the 2001 group that completed back-to-back state Final Four appearances.

Head coach Remy McCarthy isn't quite ready to agree with that sentiment, but he didn't quite disagree either.

"You just don't know how good everybody else is," said McCarthy. "But I will say this, we've never had this kind of depth."

In that vein, McCarthy has added three new assistant coaches, including former Moorpark College stars Greg Murphy and Kenny Plummer, to the staff.

"I'm glad we have five assistants because I'm afraid I wouldn't remember to put a guy in," said McCarthy. "Last year, Dwight played entirely too many minutes. We don't have to do that this year."

The Raiders' legions include former Westlake High backcourt Matt Mazarei and Kyle Olandt, former Oaks Christian star Matt Hornbuckle and Calabasas High product Redmond Parker, who redshirted at Long Beach State last year.

Hotshot freshman Justin Taylor had nearly 20 points and only missed one shot in the team's intrasquad scrimmage last week.

"Competition in practice has been fierce," said McCarthy. "Once they start playing together and stop killing each other all the time, we might develop some camaraderie."