ORANGE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team (5-1, 0-1 SCIAC) began Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play Wednesday night at Chapman University where they dropped their first game of the season by 12, 75-63.

Lucas Gordon (San Marcos, CA) got things started with a jumper on the Bulldogs' opening possession.  A Jake Hlywiak (Valencia, CA) free throw at the 16:34 mark made it 7-6 Bulldogs before the Panthers went on a 13-1 run going ahead by double digits.  

Omari Ferguson (Chicago, Ill.) then got into the paint seconds later and started a 10-2 U of R run that brought them within a possession, 21-18. During the run Ferguson had four points and Donovan Ware (Palmdale, CA) tallied another five.

Redlands then erased a six-point deficit, 28-22, over the final four minutes of the opening half scoring the final six points to tie the game at 28-28 heading into the break. Ferguson had four points and Jhace Boston (Bakersfield, CA) converted on his two free throws within the final minute.

After a great close to the first half the Bulldogs allowed the Panthers to score the first seven points of the second period. Gordon responded with a quick four points and Chozen Amadi (Richardson, TX) scored off a Cam Brown (Bakersfield, CA) assist to help Redlands deadlock the game at 37-37 with 14:36 still to play.

After that tie, Chapman led by seven before another UR response made it a two-point game with 10:48 on the clock. The Panthers, however, had the final push, scoring 28 of the final 46 points en route to a 12-point upset victory.  

Ferguson had a strong game with 18 points. Gordon posted a double double with 16 points and 16 rebounds. The rest of the team, though, combined for only 29 points on 8-of-41 shooting.

For the game Redlands shot 33% from the field, a mere 14% from behind the arc and 72% from the free-throw line.  They added 34 points in the paint, 15 points off turnovers and received 17 points from the bench.  Most notably for the Panthers was outscoring the Bulldogs by 27 points from behind the arc, while shooting 52% from the field and 48% from three-point territory.  

Redlands will get just over two weeks off from competition before playing two games in Virginia for the Elder & Friedman Holiday Classic on December 19-20 where they will play No. 14 Roanoke College in a neutral site game and then No. 8 Hampden-Sydney College on the road in a rematch of their sweet 16 match-up last March.