THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team (12-8, 4-7 SCIAC) again found themselves making a second half comeback coming up short as they lost 75-71 at first place and No. 13 California Lutheran University (CLU) on Saturday afternoon in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) action.
In the opening nine minutes the two teams were deadlocked on five different occassions before Neil Owens (Pasadena, CA) started a 6-0 Bulldog run that gave them their largest lead of the opening half, 22-16. Robert Power (Pacific Palisades, CA) and Cameron Joseph (Fairfield, CA) also scored in the paint during the run.
The Kingsmen would come back to tie the game at 24-24 with 5:58 left in the half and would then take an eight-point lead with less than a minute and a half to play as they were on a 20-6 run.
Redlands, though, would hold them scoreless the rest of the half and picked up one point after Khyree Armstead (Mountlake Terrace, WA) made one of two at the charity stripe. His second free throw made it a seven point deficit at intermission.
Following a minute and a half of scoreless action to begin the second half, Owens made a three off a Kendrick Currey (Manteca, CA) assist to make it a four point game.
The Bulldogs continued their great defense in the second half as they allowed only two points in the opening three plus minutes, which allowed them to get within one, 38-37, with 16:42 on the clock.
After the great run got them to a one-point game, the Kingsmen responded with nine of the next eleven points that made it an eight-point margin once again.
Trailing by eight with just over 13 minutes to play the Bulldogs made another run this time storming all the way back to go in front, 48-47, with 11:03 on the clock. During the nine unaswered run Power scored five points along with Currey and Jhace Boston (Bakersfield, CA) each adding two apiece.
Redlands led by as many as two as late as 6:44, but over the next 5:31 CLU scored 19 of the next 27 points as were up by three full possessions, 72-63, with only 1:13 left in the game.
Despite the large deficit, the Bulldogs were able to draw within two, 73-71, with :14 seconds left after Power grabbed a defensive rebound before finishing a layup off an Armstead feed.
The Kingsmen would then call a timeout and coming out of it they would immediately turn it over thanks to a Boston steal. This then led to a deep three from Power with four seconds left but it would miss, allowing CLU to escape with the victory following two made free-throws.
Power had a career-high 24 points (9-15 FG, 4-6 3FG, 2-4 FT) with five rebounds and four assists. The rest of the team, though, had 57 points on 42.2 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from three in comparison to Power's 60 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from three.
The Bulldogs will return home and host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Wednesday, February 7 at 7:00 p.m. inside Currier Gym in the third consecutive game against a team that is at least receiving Top-25 votes from D3hoops.com.
