Rams Finish Off San Mateo with a 16-Point Lead, But It’s Not Enough

After Friday night’s tip-off, starting guard Vitor Oliveira threw the defending state champions' possession out of bounds, creating a haphazard start to the Rams’ return to the Brad Duggans court. The City College scoreboard hit a breakaway towards the end of the first half, managing to hold onto a nearly 30-point lead against the San Mateo Bull Dogs. Despite the Rams' defense locking up the visiting team and shutting down their first home game of the Spring Semester with an 80-54 lead, the coaches walked away shaking their heads.

We’re still trying to put all the pieces together,” said Shane Lincoln. “We're not a finished product at all.”

Six minutes into the first half, the Bulldogs and the Rams had gone shot-for-shot and tied up the board 8-8. Despite the Rams’ wall of defense, San Mateo pushed to break through their tie by driving the ball through the paint.

Throughout the game, the Rams proved able to recover from what would have been a lot more missed connections. A missed pass to Jaeden Hutchins was picked up again before going out of bounds and fed back to Hutchins for an easy dunk from under the net.

Defensive pressure kept forcing turnovers for San Mateo, and the lack of openings forced a lot of missed shot opportunities, allowing City College to get the lead. When the Bulldogs responded with a big 3, the Rams kept the energy alive with fast offensive ball movement.

“It was a tough game for me personally. I started out with a turnover right off the bat,” said Oliveira, who looked heated from the sidelines. “I was trying to turn the team back on on defense, trying to talk either from the bench or from the court, just trying to bring some energy that doesn't involve me scoring the ball.”

When Oliveira backed up into the paint, he turned to find guard James Moore for an open 3 from the corner.

At times, all the Bulldogs could do was try to muscle through in the hopes of drawing a foul. After Hutchins was there to put away a missed 3-pointer and extend the lead, the Bulldogs called a timeout.

Head Coach Justin Labagh was frustrated by the Rams' occasional lack of playmaking, which led to turnovers and dumping possessions without a plan despite pulling a 10-point lead towards the final minute of the half.

In the final 60 seconds before halftime, Nick Cubley stood ready for the ball in transition. After a failed 3-point attempt, Cubley was locked in and ready for the rebound and pulled off the shot and the foul after missed shot opportunities from City. Then, when Cubley caught the ball in the corner, he fed it to Kirby Seals as he cut through the paint and put the Rams on a 14-0 run.

With 6 seconds left in the half, Lincoln jumped up and blocked what would've been a clean pull-up jumper from San Mateo. When Lincoln dribbled away, he glanced at the clock; seconds remained, and he jumped through the air from behind the half-court line. The buzzer echoed, the ball hung in the air, and drained through the net. The crowd roared as the game went to halftime: 42-21 Rams.

When San Mateo came back to the court with possession, they started to connect on a lot more of their open shot opportunities, which kept them in the game along with a slightly tighter defense.

Marcus Robinson was creating some scoring opportunities with his ball movement. When he got locked up in the paint, he got the ball to James Moore, who scored a layup through two defenders. Later, when the Rams caught the defensive rebound, Kirby Seals found Elliot Conley with a pass while in transition. Conley steamed ahead in full force and drew a foul on a missed slam dunk attempt.

Oliveira's offensive plays started gaining momentum, and his 3-pointer created a 19-point lead over San Mateo early in the second half. Oliveira continued to score more goals and generate good ball movement on offense for his teammates.

“I think we shot the ball pretty well,” said Kenyon DeMuynck. “We hit a lot of 3s, so that was good, and we set the energy. We were talking a lot actually on the court,” he said with a laugh.

With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, City College continued to make its 3-pointers and maintained a stable lead, while on defense, they forced the Bulldogs to choke up and run down their shot clock on multiple occasions.

“It was just some turnovers. That's what kept us out of the game a little bit,” DeMuynck said. “But we always got it back because we are a defensive team.”

The Rams finished strong in the final minutes of the game. Robinson drove down the lane and got caught trying to pop up in the paint, but got fouled and made both shots. When the Rams forced a turnover, Robert Morgan lobbed the ball up to DeMuynck, who came down with a dunk. The crowd roared. Only 20 seconds remained for San Mateo, who proceeded to miss two back-to-back 3-pointers before finally scoring a layup – but it was not enough. The score was 80-54, and City College dribbled out the final seconds of the clock with a 26-point lead.

For Head Coach Justin Labagh, the performance was not enough. “We're not playing that well. I think we have no attention to the details. And if we don't fix it soon, we're going to get beat.”

The win brought their season record to 19-1, and the defending state champions are currently ranking second in the league behind Las Positas College.