REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team remains red hot as they won their fourth straight game Saturday night beating George Fox University 95-84 inside Currier Gym.
Following a tight loss to No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor back on November 9 the Bulldogs have been on a tear beating UC Santa Cruz (83-76), No. 28 St. Thomas (80-72), Willamette (110-58) and now George Fox (95-84). They are now 4-1 averaging 90.0 PPG on the season, shooting 43.5% from the field and averaging 42.8 RPG.
Head Coach Eric Bridgeland utilized his depth once again to pull out the win using twelve players with three reaching double figures, led by sophomore transfer Chozen Amadi (Dallas, TX) who poured in a game high 31 points on 10-of-18 shooting, going 5-of-7 from deep with six rebounds, two assists and four steals. Junior transfer Khyree Armstead (Mountlake Terrace, WA) was also a force on both ends finishing with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting with nine rebounds, seven assists, and four steals. The last Bulldog to reach double figures was two-time SCIAC Defensive Athlete of the Week Nathaniel Johnson (Seattle, WA) who put up 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting with six rebounds, two assists and another four steals.
It was a tight game early with both teams trading responses. Two minutes in GFU held an 8-6 lead and had a six-point advantage at the 13:47 mark following a 6-0 run. This advantage wouldn't last though as Redlands would storm back with 14 unanswered covering five minutes, which put them on top 27-18. Amadi sparked the run with back-to-back triples and was followed by a lay-in by Colin McCarthy (Redwood City, CA) and nine straight from Armstead, making it a ten-point game, 30-20.
George Fox put up a fight though stringing together their own run of twelve straight, which included a couple long balls that put them back on top 32-30. This is when McCarthy took over creating his own run of five straight, which included a three-pointer and two free throws. This would swing the momentum back to the Bulldogs as they would close out the final 2:00 minutes of the half on a 10-3 run, capped off with a buzzer-beater put back by Robert Power (Pacific Palisades, CA), moving the score to 52-42.
It was a defensive battle in the second half and GFU gave UR all they could handle starting their comeback off with three straight triples that cut the margin to three, 56-53. A jumper from Momo Stokes made it a two-point game at the 16:27 mark and three free throws from Austin Clark would give the Bruins back a lead at 58-57. Armstead was able to stop the run with a pair of layins that got the Bulldog offense going giving them another lead this time at 61-58. This led to a 13-2 run by the Maroon and Grey, with five coming from Cameron Brown (Bakersfield, CA), which pushed the lead back to double digits.
With under ten minutes to play GFU continued to chip away at the Bulldog advantage, but it was Amadi who stole the show putting together a 13-2 run in just four minutes all by himself, which included back-to-back-to-back three-pointers moving the score to 85-66. GFU added nine of the next ten points to get within ten, but that's as close as they would get as Redlands would secure the win with two free throws from Armstead and a put back two-handed jam from Johnson.
The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 47% from the field, 40% from three-point territory and 78.1% from the free-throw line. They provided pressure all night forcing 13 turnovers and turning them into 22 points. The difference in the game came in the paint where the U of R held a 47-12 advantage on the glass, while outscoring the Bruins 46-26 in the paint.
Other notable performances included McCarthy with nine points and six boards, Cal Hansen (Burien, WA) off the bench in 16 minutes of action posting six points and six rebounds, and Brown who added six points in ten minutes.
Redlands has a few days of rest before opening up Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play on the road, Wednesday, November 30 against Whittier College beginning at 7:00pm.