With senior guard Kendel Glapion (San Francisco, CA) leading the way, the University of Redlands men's basketball team blew past the Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz on Tuesday evening in Currier Gym, 88-73. After jumping out to a 15-0 lead early in the first half, the Bulldogs never looked back en route to the 15-point west-region triumph.
Glapion and sophomore forward Aljosa Bjekovic (Maribor, Slovenia) both started off hot, combining for the first six points of the game. Senior forward Eric Radford (Federal Way, WA) added a pair of buckets not long after, and with the whole team shooting the ball well, Redlands led 15-0 with 13:40 remaining in the first stanza.
After senior forward Alex Rudd (St. Louis, MO) hit a shot from beyond the arc and Glapion nailed a few more shots, the Bulldogs led 26-5 midway through the first half. Redlands continued to pour it on, and with 8:38 remaining, sophomore forward Kyle Milligan (Portland, OR) connected with his brother Sean Milligan (Portland, OR) with a nifty no-look pass for the easy layup, extending the advantage to 23 points.
Glapion finished the first half as he started, and this time nailed a long jumper as the time wound down to put the Bulldogs up 46-26 at the halftime break.
During the first 20 minutes, Redlands shot 56.3% from the field as a team, while holding the Banana Slugs to just a 21.9% effort. Individually, Glapion went 7-for-7 from the field during the first stanza.
In the second half, the Maroon and Gray did not let up, and senior guard Ricky Peetz (Redlands, CA) drained a shot from downtown while Bjekovic did the same as the Bulldogs extended the lead to 28 points early on.
UC Santa Cruz attempted to make a couple of runs at the Redlands lead, but for every bucket the Banana Slugs made, the Bulldogs had an answer. On a few occasions, Rudd hit long three-pointers en route to helping the Maroon and Gray secure the comfortable triumph.
In the win, Rudd finished with a team-high 21 points on 6-for-12 shooting from the field and a 5-for-10 effort from beyond the arc. Glapion remained perfect from the field on the night and tallied a new career-high with 16 points, while Bjekovic added 15 points and seven rebounds.
On the night, Redlands shot 52.5% from the field and held UC Santa Cruz (2-9) to just a 31.9% shooting effort overall. The Bulldogs also edged the Banana Slugs in rebounds, 45-35, and dished out more assists as a team, 17-15.
After the victory, Glapion talked about the team's solid performance and his big night.
The U of R (3-5) returns to the court on Thursday evening when it hosts Willamette University (OR) at 7 p.m. in Currier Gym. If you can't make it to the game, be sure to follow the action via live stats and the live-video feed.
