GALLANT GLADS FALL TO NO. 1 CCSF
HAYWARD – The Chabot College men's basketball team gave the No. 1 team in the state all it could handle before falling to City College of San Francisco 83-80 on Wednesday night.
Chabot, ranked 15th in the state, went on a 26-12 run in the last nine minutes of the game to nearly beat the visiting Rams. A three-pointer at the buzzer by the Gladiators' Amani Johnson were the final points of the game.
"Second half, we came out with way more energy," said Chabot interim head coach Marcel Miffin, whose team trailed 46-32 at halftime. "It was more physical this game."
On Jan. 24, the Gladiators lost 96-74 to the host Rams, a game in which Chabot trailed 56-32 at halftime. But this game was different, as an 11-5 run to start the second half showed that the Gladiators meant business.
"In the second half, I felt that we were a lot more composed, we ran our sets all the way through, we got good looks at the basket," said Chabot freshman Zion Yeargin, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half. Teammate Aaiden Burris led all scorers with 20 points, including five 3-pointers.
Chabot enters its season finale on Friday at Canada with a 20-7 overall record and 9-4 Coast Conference-North mark, which puts the Gladiators currently in a tie for third place with Skyline. City College of San Francisco improved to 26-1 overall and clinched the Coast-North title with a 12-1 record.
On Wednesday, CCSF took a 30-15 lead in the first half with a 3-pointer by Ray-John Spears with nine minutes, 17 seconds to go until halftime. But the Gladiators outscored the Rams the rest of the first half, with Burris producing nine points to lead Chabot.
The Gladiators also scored the first four points of the second half on two free throws by Johnson and a putback by Savage. Johnson finished with 10 points and Savage had eight.
Chabot cut the Rams' lead to six points twice in the first six minutes of the second half, but CCSF built its lead back to double digits and held a 71-54 advantage on a putback by Vitor Oliveria, who had 10 of his 12 points in the second half. However, that would be the high-water mark for the Rams, as Chabot proceeded to go on a 16-2 run.
The Gladiators shocked the Rams by drawing to within 73-70 on a three-pointer by Burris with 4:05 to play. CCSF held off the Gladiators in the next three minutes and took a 79-72 lead on a traditional three-point play by Jalen Glenn with 1:24 left.
But Chabot wouldn't back down, and stayed in contention. A 3-pointer by Burris with 7.9 seconds to go narrowed the CCSF lead to 82-77. Miles Amos was immediately fouled and sank one of two free throws with 6.8 seconds to play for CCSF's final point. After the second free throw, a miss, Mathias Moore grabbed the rebound and fired the ball to Johnson, who made the final basket of the game.
Marcellus Edwards scored 11 points for Chabot, including seven in the second half, and passed for a game-high five assists. Yeargin added four assists, and Johnson had three. Christian Wilson, the Gladiators' 6-foot-10 freshman forward, grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. Moore added seven boards.
The Rams also had four players score in double figures, led by Jalen Glenn with 16.