LA VERNE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team moved into a tie for first place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings after beating the University of La Verne, 86-78, on the road Wednesday night. The Bulldogs are now tied with California Lutheran University for first place who they split the season series with.
Lucas Gordon (San Marcos, CA) began his big game with an early layup. Then at the 16:55 mark he converted on a three-point play as he had the Bulldogs up 6-3.
The lead stretched to double digits for the first time after Kendrick Currey (Manteca, CA) got into the paint giving UR a 13-3 advantage.
After the Leopards reduced the lead to two, 14-12, Jake Hlywiak (Valencia, CA) made a three off an Omari Ferguson (Chicago, Ill.) assist sparking eight unaswered that included a fastbreak dunk for Currey and a three for Chozen Amadi (Dallas, TX).
The lead grew to as many as 17 and they would head into the locker room up 11, 45-34, after Currey scored before the halftime buzzer.
La Verne pulled within eight, 50-42, at the 17:07 mark in the second half, but Redlands quickly re-established their double figure advantage with an 11-1 run across the next two minutes as the gap ballooned up to 16, 59-43.
The game looked in hand with 6:09 to play when Gordon had an offensive rebound tip in pushing the lead to 77-57. The Leopards, though, fought back, scoring 16 of the next 20 points, but it took them more than five minutes and the Bulldogs were able to close out the final minute with five points from Gordon.
Gordon finished with 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting and 6-of-8 from the line. He also had 11 rebounds. Currey, Amadi, and Hlywiak were in double figures too. The Bulldogs shot 43.1% from the field, 26.3% from three-point territory and 79.2% from the free-throw line. They also added 13 points off turnovers, 19 second chance points, 52 points in the paint, and eight fastbreak points.
With the win they are in position to win the SCIAC regular season title for the first time since 2012-13 which was also the last SCIAC Tournament title and trip to the NCAA tournament.
Redlands celebrate their seniors this Saturday inside Currier Gym at 7 p.m. as they host Occidental College.
