The Fresno City College men’s basketball team made a strong statement to all the teams in the Central Valley Conference in their 120-70 victory over Columbia on Feb. 6.

The first half of the game had a strong defensive start as both teams showed their formations, causing turnovers and not giving either team the edge in the early going. Once each team settled in, they began to share baskets and were tied 8-8 after the first four minutes of game time. Rams assistant coach and former Rams player himself Sultan Toles-Bey estimated what he saw from the Columbia defence.

“Columbia was playing a zone defense and that allowed our shooters to hit the shots tonight,” Toles-Bey said.

Shortly after the game being at a standstill, the Rams took control of the game. They slowly started to get more offensive possessions that led to large amounts of scoring, especially from the three point arc. Fresno’s Nick Hilton, Terrance Wieneckle and Josh Sykes scored nine of their 13 3-pointers in the first half alone. The Rams would head into halftime with a 53-28 lead.

“It feels great. Our hard work was really paying off,” sophomore guard/forward Mike Crawley said. “Us having that big lead in the half made it better.”

The Rams came back for the second half with the mindset that they would not be satisfied with the lead that they had. They controlled the tempo that matched their style of play by slowing down their offense while still staying aggressive.

The Rams stayed on their barrage of point scoring by shooting from all ranges of the court. From 3-pointers, layups, shots from the paint and second chance shots, this type of field goal production was breaking the backs of Columbia. At this point the Rams had a substantial lead midway through the second half with a 81-51 lead. One of the standout performances in this game was from first year breakout star BJ Shelton who scored a game-high of 20 points with a couple of them being slam dunks.

The Rams would close out the game and improve to 21-6(8-1 in the conference) with this win, making it their fourth straight, giving them an even stronger grip on first place in the CVC.

“This game was personal for us,“ Shelton said. “We’ve just got to keep playing hard and with intensity to finish the season as league champions.”