CLAREMONT, Calif. – After losing two of their last three road games, the University of Redlands Men's Basketball team (20-4, 12-3 SCIAC) dominated No. 16 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) in the second half of their 91-69 road win Wednesday evening.
The Bulldogs had a slow start to their game last weekend at Occidental College, but Wednesday night they scored 10 of the first 12 and led by eight.
CMS, though, came back and scored 14 of the next 19 points and held a 16-15 lead with 11:15 on the clock. A Lucas Gordon (San Marcos, CA) dunk off a Chozen Amadi (Richardson, TX) assist, though, sparked an 8-1 run for the U of R that gave them a seven-point advantage.
The lead grew to as many as ten but the Bulldogs had to settle for a seven-point lead at the half after a Stag turnover led to a Jhace Boston (Bakersfield, CA) fastbreak layup.
The Stags were within four, 44-40 to begin play in the second half, but four quick points by Boston, a three by Austin Unegbu (Long Beach, CA), and a four-point play for Amadi pushed the lead to 15, 55-40, only a minute and a half later.
The lead then snowballed to 20 thanks to a pair of Jake Hlywiak (Valencia, CA) three-pointers and an Amadi basket that made it 73-50 with 11:12 to go.
The closest CMS ever got the rest of the way was 17 as Redlands secured the season sweep of the Stags giving them a clear path to the number one seed in the upcoming Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament if they win their regular season finale Saturday.
Hlywiak and Gordon each had 20 points on the night. 18 of Hlywiak's points came from behind the arc as the Bulldogs outscored the Stags by 36 from three-point territory. They also got 15 points from Boston and Amadi.
For the games the Bulldogs shot 49.3% from the field, 38.2% from deep and 85.7% from the free-throw line. They also added 38 points in the paint, 28 fastbreak points, 29 points off turnovers, and 10 second chance points.
Redlands ends the regular season with senior night this Saturday at 5 p.m. as they host Whittier College.
