Men end regular season with rout of Skyline

By Sol Ladvienka
Contributing Writer

As the men’s regular season came to an end Friday night at the Wellness Center, Rams head coach Justin Labagh wanted his team to finish the regular season with a bang before preparing for the Northern California playoffs next week.

“It’s not about Skyline tonight, but about finding out who we are,” Labagh told his team prior to tip-off.

With the Rams’ 98-62 victory over the Trojans, they finished the regular season with a 24-4 record, 9-3 in the Coast Conference, and tied with Foothill for second place.

City College started the game with a bang right off the opening tip.Freshman guard De’End hit sophomore forward Chris White for an alley-oop dunk, not only get the game under way, but to get the crowd into the game early.

Jonathon Williams, who finished with 23 points to lead all scorers, helped the Rams jump out to a 49-30 score at halftime, and they never looked back.

“Coach’s motivation tonight was to have the freshmen step up and play like sophomores,” Williams said.

The Rams’ defense was solid the entire game, as they locked down Skyline’s perimeter shooters and post players.

“We were able to stay on point,” sophomore guard Tyler Brown said. “Coach teaches us to stay together, and tonight was all about defense and pressuring them the entire game.”

Despite their stellar shooting performance, which saw the Rams hit 70 percent of their three-point attempts, missed free throws were a concern for Labagh after the game.

“We left too many points on the line, and we can’t have that going into the playoffs,” he said. “We work on them every practice. I just won’t accept missed free throws.”

The Rams, who are seeded number-two in the Northern California region, are set to take on the winner of Wednesday’s contest between College of the Redwoods and San Joaquin Delta.

Brown, who is one of eight players returning to the state playoffs this season, knows the team has a long road ahead of them if they hope to even have a shot at the state title.

“It’s going to take a lot,” Brown said. “We need to stay on point, and get the most out of our practice time.”

City College will have the rest of the week to practice before their Feb. 27 second round game at the Wellness Center, which will tip-off at 7 p.m.  The Rams must then win their two regional games if they hope to return to the state tournament, which will be held March 11-14 at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.