Rickey Mitchell Jr scores a game-high 29 points as the Rams handle Ohlone College 89-64

by Henry Crowell
henrycrowell5@gmail.com

The Rams men’s basketball team continued its win streak on Friday, Jan. 17, besting the Ohlone College Renegades 89-64 behind sophomore guard Rickey Mitchell Jr.’s 29 points and physical play all around.
City College jumped out to an early lead and never relinquished it, despite solid physicality and play in the paint from the Renegades (14-5 overall, 2-3 in Coast Conference).

After starting the season off 15-0, the Rams dropped their game against Las Positas College on Jan. 10, losing 81-69. The win against Ohlone starts the win streak anew, as the Rams picked up a win against Skyline College just two days previous. The win brings the Rams to 17-1 on the season overall and 3-1 in conference games.

In addition to Mitchell’s game-high 29 points, four rebounds, and two steals, sophomore forward John Squire posted 10 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds.

Hard-nosed play was the name of the game on Jan. 17, with 23 fouls between the two teams.
Squire said, “We knew going into the game it was going to be physical, and we’ve had a bad last couple of games, so we wanted to come out and be physical.”

Squire had multiple three-point play opportunities over the stretch, fighting through contact to get baskets and draw fouls throughout the game.

Although City College maintained a lead throughout the game, it was not without contention. Sophomore guard Michael Fastion and freshman forward Anthony Lacy each contributed 20 points to the Renegade’s cause, with Fastion adding on 10 rebounds and five assists and Lacy tallying nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks, a steal, and turning the ball over five times.

Fastion and Lacy led Ohlone on a 7-0 run with 1:45 left in the first quarter, although this only put them within 13 points.
Mitchell Jr. said of his six made 3s, “I needed a rhythm for sure, because I came out and missed my first two. So I feel like I had to get a rhythm, take some layups and just get inside the paint, and then eventually get out to the (3-point arc), start hitting them.” Eighteen of Mitchell’s 29 points came from 3s, including one to put the Rams up 15 in the second half.

At one point, the Renegades had six players on the floor, leading to a chorus of objections from both the Rams’ bench and the City College home crowd, although that was not the only problem they had with the officiating.

Rams’ coach Labagh said before the game that he wanted “good defense after a couple of sloppy games.” After the win, he said, “I think we had a good effort on defense, but what happened tonight is when the shot went up, we kind of stopped and there was actually a couple more seconds left on defense, and that’s giving up the offensive rebound. They got way too many offensive rebounds tonight, so I thought we did good for 95 percent of the time, but that last 5 percent didn’t do well.”

When asked what they could learn from the game, Labagh said, “We came prepared – we weren’t prepared last Friday night (in the loss to Las Positas). Our guys kind of took winning for granted, so now I think we have a different approach: back to how we started the season. So I think we just got back on track, and we can’t take anybody for granted.”

Editor’s note:
On Friday, Jan. 24, the Rams crushed Chabot College with a 22-point lead and a final score of 96-74.