REDLANDS, Calif. - The University of Redlands men's basketball team finished 13-3 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play which tied them with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) for their second consecutive co-regular season title. Thanks to a head-to-head advantage over CMS and a win over Occidental College in the Semi-Finals the Bulldogs will now host Chapman University Sunday, March 1 at 2:00 p.m. inside Currier Gymnasium as the No. 1 seed in the SCIAC Tournament Championship Game.
Tickets are available online using this link. You can also purchase tickets on-site for $10. SCIAC students, faculty and staff with institutional ID and children under 12 are free.
The 2026 SCIAC Tournament Championship comes down to a rematch that carries some significant history: the same No. 3 Chapman Panthers who handed No. 1 Redlands one of their four losses this season are the ones standing between the Bulldogs, a conference tournament title and an AQ bid to the national championships.
How they got here
Redlands earned the top seed after claiming the head-to-head tiebreaker over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, finishing the regular season with a 13-3 conference record. The Bulldogs are powered by the fifth-best offense in the nation, averaging over 94 points per game. They then cruised past Occidental College in the semifinals 100-76.
Jake Hlywiak powered the offense with 19 points, shooting 7-of-10 from the field and knocking down five three-pointers leadinf a unit that had five players in double figures.
Chapman, meanwhile, also made a statement in the semifinals. The Panthers hit 11 of their 16 three-point attempts in the first half alone to build a 43-34 lead they never relinquished, knocking off No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 79-68. Sophomore guard
Joe Jack was a key catalyst down the stretch, making a crucial steal and three-pointer to push the lead back to double digits when CMS was threatening a comeback.
The regular season meeting
This match-up has a compelling backstory. In the teams' regular season meeting at Chapman, the Panthers built a 12-point upset victory after scoring 28 of the final 46 points.
Lucas Gordon posted a double-double with 16 points and 16 rebounds, while
Omari Ferguson added 18, but the rest of the Bulldogs combined to shoot just 8-of-41 from the field. That result snapped what had been a dominant stretch for Redlands and remains fresh motivation for both sides.
Redlands did not let the loss linger, however. Since losing two of their last three road games, the Bulldogs dominated nationally-ranked CMS in the second half of a 91-69 road win, then closed the regular season with a victory over Whittier, claiming back-to-back conference regular season titles for the first time since 1959-62.
Players to watch
The player of the year battle is worth the price of admission alone. Redlands is led by SCIAC Player of the Year
Lucas Gordon, and the Bulldogs fire off the 13th-most three-pointers in the country per game. Gordon is the engine of everything Redlands does, capable of filling the stat sheet on any given night. But the Maroon and Grey also had four All-SCIAC selections with Gordon on the 1st Team and Hlywiak, Ferguson, and
Jhace Boston all being voted to the 2nd Team Head Coach
Eric Bridgeland and his staff were also selected as the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year.
For Chapman, senior
Jake Heberle is a three-time All-SCIAC selection who ranked sixth in scoring during SCIAC play last season, averaging 18.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, while shooting 90 percent from the free throw line. Now a senior in his final collegiate campaign, Heberle will be looking to cap his career off with a championship.
The storyline
Redlands is playing at home, carries the top seed, and has the best offense in the conference — perhaps in the country at this level. But Chapman has already proven once this season that they can disrupt the Bulldogs' system, particularly when their three-point shooting is clicking. Redlands holds the No. 1 seed with 22 wins, making back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1959-61. A tournament title tonight would make this one of the program's most celebrated single seasons in modern memory.
For the Panthers, this is a chance to complete a stunning run — knocking off the two and one seeds in back-to-back games — and pulling off one of the bigger upsets in recent SCIAC tournament history. Their three-point shooting will once again be the key variable. If the shots fall the way they did against CMS, they will be a tough out.
