City College men’s basketball team beat the Bakersfield College Renegades in a close match, 81-79.
Bakersfield won the tip to start the game and immediately applied pressure to the Vaqueros, scoring early.
The Renegades were controlling the identity of the match, grabbing six offensive rebounds in the first half alone.
“They did a great job of getting it inside and around the rim,” Head coach Devin Engebretsen said. “Those turn into point-blank layups that hurt us.”
The Vaqueros were facing adversity, trailing 37-32 late in the first half and needed a spark. They got one.
Point guard Bryson Matthews got inside for a layup, cutting the lead by three and followed it up with a steal. The Vaqueros had begun to bounce back in the game.
After a Bakersfield travel, City College responded with a barrage of threes, first by guard Dante Calhoun and followed up with back-to-back three pointers by shooting guard Mason Thomas.
“My teammates have a lot of confidence in me,” Thomas said. “Every time I come off the bench they tell me to stay aggressive.”
In the span of just over a minute, City College had taken a four-point lead heading into the half and had all of the momentum.
The Vaqueros maintained that momentum from the first half and ran with it, jumping out to a seven-point lead early in the second half of the game.
Guard James Reach found his teammates early, racking up two assists right out of the break. Reach was all over the box score in this game, having an impact on every side, highlighted by a staggering four steals.
“I think that’s big when teams are shutting down my three-ball,” Reach said. “It helps get me going when I make big plays for my teammates.”
Closing out the competition in a close game is a difficult thing in basketball as a team could quickly come back and the Vaqueros are no strangers to heartbreaking defeats. Already this season, they have suffered two close losses where they struggled down the stretch.
“There’s room for improvement,” Engebretsen said. “We need to rebound and make our free throws late.”
The Vaqueros seemingly were going down that same path as the Renegades were storming back. Bakersfield was down one point with only a minute left.
Someone needed to stop the Renegade run. Forward Jack Berry and guard Dante Calhoun did just that.
Berry drove in for a layup, capping off his eight-point half and jumping the lead to three with 10 seconds left. Calhoun then swooped in for a game-ending steal in the Bakersfield backcourt.
“We did a good job against their press late,” Reach said. “We didn’t have many turnovers offensively, and we forced one defensively at the end.”
It was a team effort for the Vaqueros, with six different players having at least eight points and the bench putting up 45 total points.
“Credit to everybody,” Engebretsen said. “It doesn’t matter if you start the game it just matters if you play and it matters if you finish.”
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