The De Anza Men’s Basketball team pulled out a win over local opponents San Jose City College on Jan. 15, beating them 72-65.

The game’s atmosphere was intense right before tipoff as each team’s crowd cheered them on.

De Anza fans quickly went silent as the team trailed by 11 in the first three minutes without putting up a single point, prompting Head Coach Jason Damjanovic to call a timeout and regroup.

The timeout served De Anza well as Dominic Simpkins, 18, communications major, managed to put up the first points of the game for his team that then led to a positive first-half finish with the home team leading 33-27.

De Anza started the second half on fire by taking a commanding lead of 18 points over San Jose, whose coach showed plenty of frustration by throwing his clipboard on the ground.

A hot start was later overshadowed by many turnovers, putting the opponents in a position to comeback but it didn’t last long as a few players from San Jose fouled out, which was key.

Simpkins said the team always tends to turnover the ball but highlighted the importance of the many defensive stops that they got.

The effort on defense is a positive but the turnover rate is something that De Anza will want to asses as San Jose gained momentum at the end of the game.

“We gotta do a better job at closing games,” said coach Damjanovic.

The final play that sealed the game was made by Aaron Tomlinson, 20, psychology major, who stole the ball and got fouled with just eight seconds to spare.

With a close win, De Anza’s record improves to 8-10 as they look to continue their strong form that has been shown by losing only one game in the last eight.