Leopards Suffer Setback To Kingsmen
A strong second half surge helped propel Cal Lutheran to a 72-60 home triumph over the Univesity of La Verne in SCIAC men's basketball action Saturday evening at Gilbert Arena in Thousand Oaks.
The Leopards (5-15, 2-7 SCIAC) trailed 27-25 at the half but watched the Kingsmen reel off 11 straight points midway through the second half to grab a 48-34 lead with 7:58 left to play. Cal Lutheran maintained its double-digit advantage much of the final 10 minutes on its way to victory. The Leopards got to within eight points on two occasions in the final two minutes, the last coming at 68-60 with 19 seconds remaining.
CLU shot 52.7% (11-21) in the second half and held the Leopards to 28.6% over the final 20 minutes. With the win the Kingsmen improve to 7-12 and 3-6 in conference play.
La Verne's only lead of the game occurred on a Trevor Woodland three-pointer to give the Leos a 12-11 advantage at 12:14 in the first half. An Austin Napolitano jumper in the first minute of the second half tied the contest at 27 before the Kingsmen went on a 7-0 run to take a 34-27 lead. The Leopards trailed 37-29 before a jumper from Woodland, a layup from Bastos and a free throw from Napolitano closed the gap to three points at 37-34 with 13:22 remaining.
Woodland led the Leopards in scoring with 14 points while four other Leopards finished with 9 points on the night.
Napolitano was limited to 9 points for the game and stands six points shy of 1,000 career points. The senior forward also pulled down a team-high 9 rebounds.
Bastos, Tyler Hoyt and Jake Veith also tallied 9 points in the contest.
Aaron Van Klaveren led the Kingsmen with a double-double of 22 points and 15 rebounds while Jayvaughn Nettles and Mike Harris tallied 17 and 14 points, respectively.
The Leopards had won three straight games against CLU, having swept the two games last season in addition to earning a 65-53 home win over the Kingsmen back on January.
La Verne continues action on the road as it travels to Eagle Rock to face Occidental (8-11, 4-5) on Wednesday in a 7:30 pm start.
