The Bakersfield College men’s basketball team is having a successful season, but they still can’t beat its conference rival.
The Renegades were beaten 80-73 by conference rival Citrus College Jan. 28, a team that BC head coach Rich Hughes referred to as his team’s nemesis.
“We played poorly in the first half. We played better in the second half. We just dug ourselves too deep of a hole,” Hughes said.
Citrus, which won the state title last season, beat the Renegades twice last season.
“Two years ago we swept them. Last year they swept us in two close games. This year they got the nod on us at their place. It will always be a great rivalry between the two schools,” said Hughes.
Against Citrus, the Renegades shot 23-of 80 from the field (28.8%) which concerned Hughes.
“We can’t shoot 28 percent from the field on the road and win, especially against the No. 2 team in the state,” he said.
Skyler Vaden of BC scored 14 points and five rebounds while teammates Luis Gomez and Brad Santos each had 11 points.
Jamar Harrison had 19 points and Ricky Wofford added 13 as the Renegades defeated Glendale College 100-76 on Jan. 24.
“Our first half performance pretty much built a lead that was insurmountable. That’s kind of the way we want to play. If we had only built a 10-point lead then it would have been a ball game,” Hughes said following the game against Glendale.
The Renegades took a 62-33 halftime lead against Glendale, something that Hughes felt led to the victory.
“We were able to get that energy in that first half, and that basically won us the game,” Hughes said.
Harrison scored 20 points and Ricky Copeland added 17 points including five 3-pointers as the Renegades beat Santa Monica College 95-63 on Jan. 21.
For the first four and a half minutes of the game Santa Monica was held scoreless, as the Renegades went on a 5-0 run during that stretch.
The Renegades went into halftime leading Santa Monica 48-26, they equaled that lead with 6:50 remaining in the second half.
Hughes attributed the win against Santa Monica to the way that his team played down the stretch.”I told them (the players) at the beginning of the game that this game could be won in the first half. We got off to a great start in the first half,” said Hughes.
“The second half we were a little stagnant and weren’t quite as good we were in the first half.”
The win against Santa Monica gave Hughes 101 career victories both at Allan Hancock and at BC.
“You only win 100 games if you have great players. I have been blessed and fortunate to have great players here at BC as well as at Hancock,” said Hughes.
For Santa Monica, Rodney Hudson had 17 points and Eric Bell chipped in with 15 points.
Hughes said that his team needs to start playing better on the road and have a better shooting percentage on the road in order to get better.
The Renegades who have a 19-7 record overall and 4-2 in the Western State Conference will go on the road to play College of the Canyons Feb. 4. The Renegades play Citrus again on Feb. 21 at home at 5 p.m.