Chabot earns 8th Straight Win
On Friday, Jan. 17, the Chabot Gladiators defeated the Cañada Colts to the score of 107-91 at home in Hayward. The Gladiators came into the game ranked 10th in the state of California while sporting a 16-3 record and running on a seven-game winning streak, while Cañada came into the game going in the opposite direction with a 5-13 record and losing four of their last six games.
The records didn't matter coming into this game as it was a competitive matchup through a good portion of the game. Chabot got the scoring started on a 5-0 run to start the first half of play. The Colts would respond by taking a 9-7 lead off of a three-pointer at the 15:25 mark.
After a few back-and-forth lead exchanges throughout the half, Chabot was able to get the lead back off of a three-point shot with contact by freshman guard Leo Smith with 11:14 remaining in the half to make the score 23-19. On the next possession, Cañada would hit a three of their own and cut the lead to one point before calling a timeout.
This would be the closest the Colts would come to Chabot for the rest of the game as Chabot's offense continued to take it up a notch. The Gladiators ended the first half outscoring Cañada by 10 points, and ended the half on a beautiful jumper by Greg Brown just before the buzzer. At the break, Chabot led the Colts 54-45.
Gladiator (33) Cortez Barrett, drives down the paint converting a 2-point lay up against Cañada College on Jan. 17, 2014 at Chabot College. [Davis Dichoso/Staff Photo]
Chabot began the second half where their offense left off as they went on a 12-4 run to start the half to make the score 66-49 before Cañada called a timeout to stop the bleeding. The Colts kept pressure on Chabot to keep scoring in the second half as they wouldn't go away.
Cañada got as close as eight points in the second half when the score was 88-80 with fourteen minutes remaining, but weren't able to close in as Chabot's offense and defense were both in sync tonight. The Gladiators cracked the 100-point barrier when Chabot's Ray Baldwin laid in a missed free-throw to give Chabot their 101st point of the ball game with 1:08 left in the game. A few "garbage time" points at the end of the game made the final score 107-91 in favor of the Gladiators.
After the game Chabot Head Coach, Dennis Aye, shared his excitement about winning eight games in-a-row. Coach Aye said, "We're just glad that we're playing pretty well, and we got some big ones coming up against Skyline and San Francisco."
Chabot freshman guard, Leo Smith, came into the game leading his conference in three-point shooting percentage at 44.2 percent. Smith shared his team's secret to their success by saying, "We just play hard, play defense, and play together as a team."