The American River College men’s basketball team was defeated at home by San Joaquin Delta College, 80-66 on Feb. 11. 

The first half was a hard-fought back and forth contest. ARC came out hot and hit a couple of early baskets, but San Joaquin Delta came right back with baskets of its own. Going into halftime, it was close with a score of 33-32, in favor of San Joaquin Delta.

ARC forward Tenigee Brown earned one of the biggest highlights of the first half with a dunk that got the crowd on their feet and ignited energy into the team.

The first half was also very physical, with not a lot of calls in favor of ARC. The coaches and players weren’t happy about the lack of calls, which ended with the coaches having a conversation with the referees at halftime. 

“We spoke to the officials at halftime and said that they’re being a little more physical than we are, can you watch it. We kind of got some [calls] early and then it kind of evened out again towards the end,” head coach Mark Giorgi said.

ARC was more aggressive during the second half, which helped the team get to the free-throw line. During the second half, San Joaquin Delta started to get hot and also started to pull away. San Joaquin Delta guard Travis August got hot from three, which was a big part of San Joaquin Delta’s offense in the second half. 

San Joaquin Delta went into a zone defense, which opened up shots from the three-point line for ARC. 

“They went to a zone, so it opens up for threes, but we just weren’t hitting them,” Giorgi said.

Guard Jair Lang shot 4-9 from the three-point line. 

“For the past two or three weeks I had to step up,” Lang said. “I took advantage and had confidence. [My shot] has been feeling really good lately.”

ARC committed a lot of turnovers, which led to them falling behind and ultimately losing the game.

“We turned the ball over 24 times, which is ten more than we average,” Giorgi said.