The California Baptist Lancers are red hot right now. And on Friday night at the CBU Events Center, the Lancers put on another shooting clinic in an 89-74 win over Dixie State. CBU got a little revenge for the last time the Lancers and Trailblazers met.
Any part of a successful defensive game plan has to account for the CBU men’s basketball team’s prolific and proficient 3-point shooters.
In three of four losses this season, the Lancers were held to single digit made 3-pointers. There was one lone exception to that statistic. The Lancers made 20 3-pointers in the season opener at USC.
Friday night, Dixie State took its shot at cooling the Lancers CBU is shooting nearly 45 percent from 3-point land over their last four games. And, unfortunately for the Trailblazers, the offensive barrage by the Lancers was on full tilt mode.
For a third time this season the Lancers made 13 3-three pointers and were able to pull away from the Trailblazers earning a fifth straight win, 89-74 on Friday night in Riverside.
With the win, CBU improves to 8-4 overall and 3-2 in WAC play. Dixie State remains winless in WAC play at 0-5. The Trailblazers have also lost 7 straight contests overall.
“This was a tough one tonight, I thought our guys were playing hard and I loved the effort they were giving out there,” Dixie State Head Coach Jon Judkins said. “We had some letdowns on the defensive end that just hurt us.”
Breakdown
The first half featured five ties and ten lead changes. Neither team had larger than a 10-point lead at any time in the first half.
CBU’s largest lead was seven which occurred twice in the first half on a transition 3-pointer from Ty Rowell and a driving layup by Tre Armstrong.
Dixie State had a couple of 3-point leads in that half at 10-7 with 16:08 to the break and 16-13 with 12:34 remaining. Their final lead was with 4:02 remaining off a Cameron Gooden layup.
Frank Staine’s 3-pointer with 16:37 left cut the deficit to 47-45.
However, the Lancers went on a 10-0 run over nearly two and a half minutes taking a 57-45 lead. Armstrong and Rowell connected from beyond the arc while Elijah Thomas got in the act with an impressive dunk. Gorjak Gak added a layup in that spurt. Reed Nottage’s 3-pointer with 11:03 left made it 66-49. From there the Lancers weren’t seriously threatened.
Lancers coach Rick Croy had some positive things to say about his team overcoming adversity on Friday night.
“We expected a strong first punch from Dixie State tonight and they certainly gave us one,” Croy said. “The guys didn’t waiver and when we got rolling we showed the best version of ourselves, especially in that second half. Like any coach however I’m looking for things to get better at for tomorrow and we need to do a better job of valuing the basketball along with defending harder at the start of a game.”
Lancer Notables
Ty Rowell>>18 points on 6-15 FG’s (4-9 3’s), 4 rebounds, 8 assists (40 minutes)
Elijah Thomas>>16 points on 7-9 FG’s, 8 rebounds, 3 assists (25 minutes)
Reed Nottage>>16 points on 5-10 FG’s (4-8 3’s), 6 rebounds, 3 assists (38 minutes)
Tre Armstrong>>14 points on 4-13 FG’s (2-8 3’s), 4 assists (35 minutes)
Gorjak Gak>>11 points on 5-5 FG’s, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists (21 minutes)
Mark Carbone>>11 points on 2-5 3’s (5-5 FT’s) & 4 rebounds (20 minutes)
Trailblazer Notables
Cameron Gooden>>17 points on 5-14 FG’s (1-4 3’s), 3 rebounds, 2 assists (34 minutes)
Frank Staine>>17 points on 7-11 FG’s (2-5 3’s), 5 rebounds, 2 assists (33 minutes)
Hunter Schofield>>23 points on 8-15 FG’s (1-2 3’s), 9 rebounds, 4 assists (30 minutes)
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