The San Jose City College Jaguars basketball team hosted the De Anza College Mountain Lions on Nov. 7 as part of the San Jose City College Tip-Off Campaign, a three-game tournament that rang in the new season, squeaking away with a 70-67 victory that improved their record to 2-0.

Guard Tariq Weiser and Forward Davis Crilly, both sophomores, led the team in scoring with 20 points and 12 points, respectively. Freshman guard Justice Owens was the lone highlight for the Mountain Lions, scoring 28 points on 55% shooting.

San Jose City defended well for large parts of the first half, leading by double-digits until its last two minutes, when De Anza went on a quick run to cut the Jaguars’ lead to 9 going into the break.

The second half told a similar story for the Jaguars, who maintained their lead by playing strong defense and forcing turnovers, but with them instead pushing a higher offensive tempo compared to the first half and driving to the rim more often.

However, the faster pace did not translate into better offense.

The Jaguars struggled well to shoot as the third and fourth quarters wore on, especially from the 3-point line. De Anza, still trailing throughout, capitalized on SJCC’s shooting woes to make another late-half run fueled by a barrage of 3-pointers, before ultimately falling short.

Freshman forward Chris Naulls spoke to the Times after the win, expressing that he felt the Jaguars should have won in a more dominant fashion.

“We should’ve beat them by 30 points but a ‘dub’ is a ‘dub,’” Naulls said.