Diablo Valley College’s methodical play style of basketball threw the Bear Cubs off in their last meeting, but SRJC’s team defense and dynamic scoring defeated their conference rival 64-53 at Haehl Pavilion Feb. 18.

A 25-20 Santa Rosa lead at half time displayed the slow-paced, defense-oriented game.

“They’re hard to play against, they’re good at keeping teams off rhythm and it’s difficult to have runs against them,” said head coach Craig McMillan.

Diablo Valley burst into the second half with a 6-0 run, taking the lead and forcing coach McMillan to call a timeout just one minute into the second half.

“Coach called a time out early, we came up, he talked to us, said we need to calm down. We need to get into motion better, start swinging the ball, make the extra pass,” said SRJC guard Matt Hayes.

DVC continued to hold the ball on offense and slow the game down while

SRJC stuck to its game plan. The Bear Cubs fought back to a 30-30 tie in the following possessions and broke into a 23-7 run. The score read 53-37 with nine minutes left to play.

“I thought our guys responded a lot better this time than they did to the pace of the game last time,” said McMillan.

Matt Hayes and Davone Oliver combined for 29 of SRJC’s 39 second-half points, sinking three 3-pointers each.

Going into Friday’s game against second place Cosumnes River College, the Bear Cubs want to take first place with a win. A loss would result in a tie for the top spot in the Big 8.

“We’re looking to take it all right now,” Hayes said.