Editor’s note: City Times Media’s Vince Outlaw and Joe Panek will be adding play-by-play and color commentary to all men’s home games this fall. To watch the video, click here. To listen to the audio feed, click here. To read a rough transcript generated by otter.ai, click here.

The eight-day holiday break wasn’t going to start for Mitch Charlens’ San Diego City College men’s basketball team until the Knights maintained their focus on what Cuyamaca College brought to the court Dec. 15. 

“They run good stuff, good action,” Charlens said post-game. “So we wanted to deny everything and not let them get into their sets. And I thought we did a good job and we forced them into 21 turnovers.”

Those 21 turnovers turned into 31 Knight points as City went on to easily defeat the Coyotes, 95-57 at Harry West Gym.

The win pushes the Knights’ early conference record to 2-0 with the bulk of conference and then postseason play starting at home on Jan. 3 against San Diego Mesa. 

After a non-conference schedule for the Knights featuring games against some of the top community college programs in the state, conference play against lower-ranked Pacific Coast Athletic Conference opponents might cause wandering minds.

Charlens found a teachable moment by, “just focusing on us, telling guys not to look at the other team’s records or who they think they’ve played.”

Update, Wed., Dec. 20: Link to audio added.