The University of Redlands men's basketball team returned to the friendly confines of Currier Gym on Wednesday night and made the most of the familiar territory by capturing a 69-58 victory over the visiting Kingsmen of Cal Lutheran University. The Bulldogs trailed only once and came out on the positive end of all but one of the game's knotted scores due to the overall, balanced performance of the squad.
After a tight start to the contest, Redlands broke an early 16-all tie when senior forward Eric Radford (Federal Way, WA) knocked down a three-pointer off an assist by sophomore forward Kyle Milligan (Portland, OR).
On the team's next possession, Radford again found the open look, this time converting the long jumper to make it 21-16 with 10:13 left in the opening frame.
Although Cal Lutheran eventually evened the score at 27, the Bulldogs responded with a solid run to go into the locker room with a 32-27 lead. Senior forward Ian Gordon (Bellevue, WA) and sophomore forward Shawn James (Plano, TX) combined for the five-point finale.
The second half saw the Kingsmen put together a solid first four minutes, mustering their only lead of the game at 38-36. Arik Smith led the rally with six of his team-high 16 points during this spurt.
Following a Bulldog timeout, the team successfully regrouped by firing off a couple of nice back-door lay-ups to contribute to a 45-40 advantage. Sophomore forward Aljosa Bjekovic (Maribor, Slovenia) initiated this restructured offense by converting the three-point play off of a pass from senior Ricky Peetz (Redlands, CA) while drawing the foul. Moments later, it was Radford who found senior guard Matt Calhoun (Clackamas, OR) on a similar set-up, before junior guard Marco Kengott (San Dieog, CA) got in on the action with a drive to the basket.
From here, the Maroon and Gray took care of business at the charity stripe, while Milligan, Bjekovic, Radford, and senior forward Alex Rudd (St. Louis, MO) knocked down important baskets to extend Redlands' lead to double figures.
Radford finished the night with 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting, while Milligan added a career-high 10 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Bjekovic and Gordon tallied nine points apiece, and Rudd and Kengott each chipped in eight.
Overall, Redlands shot a consistent 44.1%, which included similar efforts in both halves. Cal Lutheran (17-6, 8-6 SCIAC) recorded a 35.1% showing on the night.
The Bulldogs also won the rebounding battle, with a slight 41-38 edge that came off of a total-team effort.
With their win and Whittier College's loss to the University of La Verne, the Bulldogs move up a spot in the conference standings, now tying for sixth with Occidental College with three games remaining in the regular season.
Redlands (9-13, 5-8 SCIAC) takes to the road on Saturday night when it challenges Caltech in Pasadena at 5 p.m.
