The Chabot College Gladiators handed the De Anza College Mountain Lions a hard 90-51 defeat on Friday, Jan. 23.

The game started close, with both teams trading buckets and leads. After the first 10 minutes, though, Chabot slowly ran away, leaving De Anza down 37-29 by halftime.

Early in the second half, forward Isaac Sisay, 18, kinesiology major (De Anza No. 40), weaved through two Gladiators and hit a quick shot in the paint, bringing cheers from the fans and cutting into Chabot’s lead.

De Anza hustled for steals, with guard Josh Villanueva (De Anza No. 10) stripping the ball and passing to guard Mekhi Thomas, 20, political science major (De Anza No. 2), who couldn’t capitalize on the turnover.

Chabot’s unrelenting pressure scored the team points through the rest of the night, widening its lead to 58-36.

With 13:07 left on the clock, a pivotal timeout let De Anza sub out its starters for its bench team, but that wasn’t enough to secure the Mountain Lions a win.

In the end, Chabot added 17 points to its lead to hand De Anza its 90-51 loss.

The Mountain Lions lost its three game win streak; meanwhile, the Gladiators turned the tables on its three game loss streak.

De Anza’s team left disappointed, but held itself accountable.

“We just have to learn from it and come back better,” guard Gio Brovelli, 19, business major (De Anza No. 12) said.

Head Coach Joe Berticevich said the team needed a strong defense to reinforce its already strong offense.

“When you don’t hit shots and that turns into head-down defense, it’s a bad combination,” Berticevich said. “If you have that combination against a good team, you lose by 40.”

The Mountain Lions would go on to lose against Skyline College on Thursday, Jan. 28.