RAIDERS GUARDS TURN FORMER RIVALRY INTO TEAM ADVANTAGE.

Byline: Gerry Gittelson Special to the Daily News

There has been a changing of the guards at Moorpark College.

Backcourt mates Marques Pena (Royal High School) and Scott Blough (Simi Valley High) have made the transition from prep arch rivals to fast friends, leading the men's basketball team to a 6-4 record, including two early season tournament wins.

``It was pretty weird playing together at first,'' Pena said. ``We were such fierce rivals - Simi beat us by one point on a last-second shot the last time we played - that I actually thought we'd never like each other. But Scott's a nice guy.''

Pena, a 6-foot-1-inch point guard, leads the Raiders in scoring (14.7 points per game), assists (6.5) and steals (2.7). Blough, the starting shooting guard, averages about 8 points a game while connecting on 47.8 percent of his shots from the 3-point range. Blough is a perfect 20 of 20 from the line.

``He guarded me,'' Blough recalled of his rivalry with Pena last year. ``It's true that at first we did kind of keep our distance of each other. But as things turned out, the way we play complements each other.''

Moorpark coach Del Parker sees last year's rivalry between his two guards as an advantage.

``I was aware they had some pretty heated battles last year,'' Parker said. ``Because of that, though, I think that both players have a lot of respect for each other, plus they have a lot of knowledge about what each other can do. That helps.

``Pena is a good ball handler, and he controls the team well,'' Parker said. ``He's a good penetrator, too. Blough is more of a pure shooter. He's been very good shooting 3-pointers so far.''

The Raiders, who won their first six games, will try to snap a four-game losing streak when they take on Harbor at home at 7:30 tonight.

``We just have to get more fundamentally sound,'' said Parker, in his second year as head coach after going 15-17 last season. ``Last game (a 56-55 loss at Bakersfield) we should have won, but unfortunately, we just didn't do a few things that we should have done. We're starting five freshman a lot of the time, and we just need to get a little more knowledgeable and realize that in JCs, you have to play at a higher level.''

Against Bakersfield, Blough led Moorpark in scoring with 12, while Pena led the squad in assists with eight.

Pena, named earlier in the season the MVP of the Cerro-Coso Tip-Off Tourney at Ridgecrest and the College of the Desert Tourney, is trying to improve his shooting.

``I'm glad I could step up and play as well as I have,'' he said, ``but I really want to work on my outside shooting, and just mentally play stronger.''

Maybe some of Blough's work habits are rubbing off on Pena; Blough shoots 300 free throws a day, hitting on almost 90 percent during his prep career. ``I'm trying to break my record,'' Blough said.

``When I was a sophomore at Simi, I hit 27 in a row.''

Shawn Williams, a 6-foot-3-inch swingman from Oak Park High, is the only sophomore starter for Moorpark, but his season has been plagued by a knee injury. Williams, fighting the flu, should be back in action tonight against Harbor.

Former Moorpark coach Al Nordquist, who guided the Raiders for 28 years, will be honored during halftime.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) Moorpark College shooting guard Scott Blough averages about 8 points a game.

(2) Six-foot-1-inch point guard Marques Pena leads the Raiders in scoring, assists and steals.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News