Men top Chabot with 65-58 victory

By Aaron Turner
The Guardsman

Looking to keep pace in a tight Coast Conference race, the Rams were able to once again defeat league rival Chabot College 65-58 on Feb. 5, this time within the familiar confines of the Wellness Center.

Sophomore guard Bennie Rhodes led the Rams with 18 points, while sophomore forwards Chris White and Da’Ron Sims contributed with 16 and 13 points apiece. The win improves their record to 21-3 overall and 6-2 in conference, moving them into a tie for second place with Foothill College.

“Our focus tonight was basically defense,” said Chris White following the game. Defense, however, was not an easy task, as White and company were forced to go up against seven-foot Chabot center Kyle Luckett, who would finish with 13 points on the night. The Gladiators were also fueled by guard Derrick Bruce, who led all scorers with 33 points on the night.

The effort would be for naught however, and the Rams were able to jump out in front early in the second half, after going into halftime up only 27-26.
An early second half run led by key buckets from Rhodes and White would allow the Rams to hold off pesky Chabot the rest of the game.

“We wanted to keep Luckett from abusing us like he did last game,” White said. “We still need to work on communicating more on defense.”

“They lack experience, so of course they’re going to make mistakes,” said Da’Ron Sims. “Coach Labagh told us to be the most aggressive team out there, so that’s what we did.”

Rams head coach Justin Labagh is keeping his team focused solely on the task at hand, winning the Coast Conference.
“Our goal is to just put in a good 40 minutes every night here on out,” said Labagh. “All we talked about following our loss to Ohlone in January is to forget about it. We need to beat Foothill and Ohlone at home, and the conference will be ours.”

City College will get their chance to do both when they host Foothill College tonight, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. Foothill won the last meeting between the teams, when they beat the Rams 72-63 back on Jan. 15.

The Rams will try to avenge their other conference loss when they host Ohlone College on Feb. 13.