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For the final time at home this season, the No. 5 San Diego City College men’s basketball team racked up another win before continuing on the road toward the 2025-26 3C2A Southern California Regional Finals.
The Knights (24-5, 16-0) advanced to the Sweet 16 of the state tournament after winning, 79-70, over Saddleback College (15-15, 5-9) in the second round of the playoffs on Saturday, Feb. 28.
At the Fullerton College Tournament in December 2025, the Knights faced the Bobcats, which resulted in a 71-68 loss for City. Making it extra painful was that it came on a buzzer-beater in overtime.
The Knights have dropped only one other game since then.
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Although the Bobcats tried their best to catch up with the Knights, they were not able to lead in points throughout the entire game.
From the beginning, there was a lot of physical contact from both teams resulting in numerous fouls and even some technicals.
A technical was called with less than a minute in the first half on Saddleback’s center Jonathan Naullas for unsportsmanlike conduct after Naullas’ elbow connected with Micah Bricker’s face and chest, forcing the Knights’ 6-7 sophomore to the ground.
Although Naullas was overheard telling a referee it wasn’t intentional, the immediate reaction by City’s guard Junior Camacho, who exchanged words with Naullas as he walked away, resulted in a technical for the Knights as well.
Later, with three minutes left in the second half, freshman Larry Lewis III received his own technical after talking back to the referee before going into a timeout called by the Bobcats.
City guard Dylan Griffin was able to surpass his previous points total against Saddleback, scoring 29 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Camacho with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Even with only a one-week bye to open the postseason, the Knights had to adjust to no longer playing games on Wednesdays, as well as prep for playoff-caliber competition, according to Griffin.
“We haven’t had an out-of-conference game in a while,” Griffin said. “We have been playing a lot of strong teams obviously, and we didn’t want to come out here and underestimate Saddleback.”
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City will face an even tougher team in the Sweet 16 with its next game against No.4 Ventura College.
“(Ventura) is a very athletic club,” head coach Mitch Charlens said. “We are going to have to be disciplined and together to get that done.”
The Knights will play against the Pirates on March 7 at 5:30 p.m.
This story was edited by Nadia Lavin and Tresean Osgood
