By Roy Valmores, The Chronicle Sports Editor

The CLC men's basketball team found themselves in a situation where every game meant a conference title or an additional year added to CLC's over 30-year drought without the Skyway belt.

The Lancer's Feb. 6 game against the Waubonsee Chiefs was no different, as the ramifications of their 77 to 68 victory solidly put their hopes of the title within reach.

The surprise victory placed the Lancers one game outside of first place.

CLC sought to build upon their prior success against the Waubonsee Chiefs, hoping that their guards, Jovan Jokic and Jordan Taylor, were more effective than they were the last time these two teams met.

"They had guys stuck on me and Jordan Taylor," Jokic said. "The challenge is really going to be getting the rest of the guys open so we can get ourselves open, and then what we need to do is back on defense because they guys really like to run."

After the first 10 minutes of play, the philosophy that Waubonsee liked to run became clearly evident as both squads dueled back and forth in what appeared to be a tight close opening to the match.

Also evident was the early absence of the two aforementioned guards, as both Jokic and Taylor struggled to make their presences felt on the court.

With the additional salt in the wound in the form of foul trouble, the Lancers saw their passive and tired play result in a Chief's lead, held until the end of the half.

"This is the third game in five days for both teams," Head Coach Chuck Ramsey. "The players are a little tired. Usually, when you're tired you either don't play defense or you try, but not with your feet, with your hands and that gets a lot of fouls."

The amount of Lancer fouls was truly a sign of fatigue as at one point the Lancers had nine fouls compared to the Chief's three, further allowing more attempts at the line and more points.

Fortunately, a sweep of collective team effort brought the Lancers within five heading into the locker room.

Coming back out onto the court for the second half, Jokic and the Lancers returned with an aggressive and almost angry demeanor.

"I told myself, 'I'm going to start being mean out there,'" Jokic said. "Everyone started picking it up and all of our energy went through one another. We just started playing well."

As the Lancers dialed in their efforts and aggressiveness, the crowd witnessed a faster-paced team that created multiple turnovers off the defensive play of Jokic and Guard Arthell Rosquist.

Happening simultaneously with this stream of defense was the impactful streak of scoring and rebounding by a reinvigorated Jovan Jokic.

Though abysmal in the opening minutes, Jokic ended the game with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Taylor, who ended with 19 points and seven assists, also contributed as the Lancers fought their back way to the victory in what truly was a team effort.

In a spell of role reversal, the Chiefs found that they were now the ones in trouble as CLC made it to the free-throw line multiple times in the second half.

Though stunned by the Waubonsee full-court press, the Lancers found themselves in a solid position to better their victory and their position in the conference.

"It was a big team effort," Jokic said.