After graduating the starting five from last year’s Elite Eight team, San Diego City College men’s basketball head coach Mitch Charlens knows the work it takes to rebuild a team back to that level.

“It’s not just putting your five best guys out there on the floor,” Charlens told City Times Media at the team’s media day. “It’s creating combinations that play well together. It’s a puzzle, not an equation.”

For Charlens and his team, the picture became a little clearer Saturday, as his eighth-ranked Knights (2-1) defeated the 18-ranked Ventura College Pirates (4-3) 80-75 during the first home game of the season at Harry West Gym. By the end of the first half, Charlens had used all 12 of the players on his roster, with seven contributing on the offensive end.

City is in the middle of a tough non-conference schedule that saw them splitting games in the San Francisco Bay Area against 2024 state champion West Valley College, a 70-66 loss, and second-ranked Yuba College, an 89-86 overtime victory. The victory over Yuba was particularly sweet for the Knights as the 49ers knocked the Knights out of last year’s state tournament in the quarterfinals. 

Against the Pirates, Kenny Gonzalez and Logan Huston, both returning guards, led the Knights in scoring with 17 points each. New addition Brandon Bento-Jackson contributed 10 points, while six other players scored in single digits. Eight City players pulled down three or more rebounds and Gonzalez and Bento-Jackson added 6 and 4 assists, respectively, out of a team total of 17 assists. 

City missed 12 free throws in the game (52%, 13-25), all in the second half, while shooting 46.9% (30-64) from the field and 33.3% (7-21) from behind the three-point line. The Knights defense forced the Pirates into 20 turnovers, leading to a 30-12 advantage in points off turnovers. 

“They were in a zone the whole game, which gives up a lot of threes,” returning guard Logan Huston said in a post-game interview. “We ended up taking a couple of early ones that lowered that percentage there. I wasn’t too mad at our shot selection.”

“Our shooters, Brandon (Bento-Jackson) and Cam (Marshall) were shooting shots that they can make, (but) just didn’t fall tonight,” Huston added. 

Ventura was led in scoring by guards Jeremiah Wilson and Kam’Ron Cigar who each had 23 points, while forward Isaiah Dudley pulled down 11 rebounds. Pirates season-leading scorer (18/g) and rebounder (10/g) Bo Dolinsek was held to nine points (zero in the first half) and five rebounds.

After exchanging baskets to start the game, City scored 13 unanswered points, including six from Yuba recruit Marley Gonzalez, and relentless man-to-man defense that forced five VC turnovers, to lead 17-4 at the 15:44 mark.

“City basketball is a very aggressive defense, picking up full court, turning guys and sending traps,” Huston said. “We’re watching some film. They had struggled with some pressure in previous games, so we wanted to apply that same thing. That’s when we kind of jumped on them early.”

Over the next eight minutes, the Pirates applied similar defensive pressure and began converting at the offensive end to chip away at the Knights’s advantage, taking their first lead 26-25 after VC guard Kam’Ron Cigar made three free throws after being fouled behind the arc by forward Micah Brickner.

“I think we had a couple of mental lapses here and there,” Huston said. “We let them feel a little bit comfortable in our house in the first half, and they rode that momentum into the second one.”

With the Knights leading 40-39, the fast-paced, up-and-down-the-court action of the first half, gave way to a much slower-paced grind in the second half, with 24 fouls being whistled after intermission compared to 10 in the first half.

At one point, Charlens loudly told the refs that he would “yell loud just like” his Ventura College counterpart Derick Pugh if it meant being able to get a foul called for the Knights. 

The teams swapped the lead four times in the second half, with none leading by more than four points until the 6:23 mark when Knights guard Abraham Kamano made a layup with an assist from Bento-Jackson and got fouled. After the play, Kamano was given a technical foul for taunting, quickly negating his good turn. The Pirates’ Wilson made both free throws and Kamano missed his and-one attempt.

City pushed the lead to nine, 76-67, on a Brickner dunk, again assisted by Bento-Jackson, with 4:25 remaining. 

The Pirates closed the gap to five, 75-80 with 1:53 left, but that would be the last scoring of the game. After a Knight miss and a turnover on their last two possessions, VC’s top scorers Cigar and Wilson both missed 3-point attempts, ending any chance of a comeback.

The Knights continue their string of games against top-20-ranked teams with three games in three days, including No. 20 Barstow (Nov. 22), No. 5 San Jose City (Nov. 23), and No. 17 Allan Hancock (Nov. 24) in the Allan Hancock College Tournament in Santa Maria, CA. City will then return to Harry West Gym on Nov. 30 to host No. 1 Fullerton at 2 p.m.

Head Coaches Go Way Back

While Derick Pugh is in his first year as Pirates head coach, he knows the program and culture well. He played at Ventura and was an assistant coach under Philip Matthews during their state championship teams of 1995 and 1996.

He also has a history with Charlens.

“Me and Mitch go back so I know what type of philosophy he rose up under,” Pugh said during a pre-game interview with City Times. “I know what he expects from his teams and that’s why I love the opportunity to play. We’re kind of like-minded in terms of what we expect from the players.”

Matthews, who was recently honored with a banner-raising in the Pirates gym, is one inspiration and connection the two coaches have.

“Philip Matthews is my mentor, godfather, counselor, everything,” Pugh said. “That’s who brought me into this game of coaching. He recruited me to Ventura College.” 

“I remember times when Mitch would call him (Matthews) to lean on him for things, because coach Matthews was kind of like the godfather to a lot of aspiring coaches, and Mitch was one of those guys,” Pugh added. “Just seeing Mitch in action kind of reminds you that he’s from our camp. Just a good guy.”