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 during the 2023-24 season. 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.

A famous line from Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” could also be the start of a novel describing the 94-72 San Diego City College men’s basketball victory over Imperial Valley College at Harry West Gym on Jan. 10. 

But instead of “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” this novel would be titled “A Tale of Two Halves.”

The first half saw the intense man-to-man and trapping defense of City turn 22 IVC turnovers into 25 points and a 30-point lead by the end of the half, 49-19.

This included an 8-minute stretch where IVC scored only two points.

The second half would see the Knights “lose” its first half of the conference season, 53-45, with Desert Warrior guard Jacob Vargas pouring in six of his seven three-pointers of the game. Vargas finished with a team-leading 28 points. 

The Knights were led in scoring by KJay Bradley (18) in a game that saw five City players score in double figures. Reserve forward Dennis Kamburov pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Knights. 

The win puts City’s record in Pacific Coast Athletic Conference play at 5-0 and sets up a battle of undefeated teams against reigning PCAC champion San Diego Miramar College (4-0) on Jan. 17 at Miramar.