The University of Redlands men's basketball team battled until the very end but came up short against the Kingsmen of Cal Lutheran University in Saturday's Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) contest, suffering a 59-65 defeat. Despite rallying back from a late 14-point deficit, the Bulldogs could not score a point in the final 76 seconds, while Cal Lutheran converted four of its six final free-throws and sank a quick bucket.
With 8:02 to go in the opening stanza, the Bulldogs held their largest lead of the game at 23-17 when senior guard Mychal Estrada (Redlands, CA) knocked down one of his three baskets from beyond the arc.
However, CLU answered with a 10-0 run before back-to-back layups from the Bulldogs knotted the score at 27 apiece. Junior guard Brian Kuklok (Poway, CA) and senior center Jack Colston (Dana Point, CA) stepped up for the Maroon and Gray during this stretch.
The Kingsmen continued to push, building a 33-28 advantage at the break.
During the second half, Redlands saw a five-point deficit quickly turn into a 14-point hole by the 13:40-mark. Jayvaughn Nettles capped off this scoring spurt for CLU with one of his four three-pointers.
But the Bulldogs clawed their way back with the help of senior forward Stephen Call's (Portola Valley, CA) hot shooting from beyond the arc. While headlining his team's comeback effort, Call knocked down a trio of threes.
With the score tied at 59 with 1:16 to play, Redlands ended up sending the Kingsmen to the line on six occasions, but the Bulldogs never took another shot, leading to the 59-65 loss.
Colston led the Maroon and Gray with 22 points and 15 rebounds. He also offered four assists, two steals and one block. Call supplied 10 points, while Estrada finished with nine.
CLU's Nettles stepped up with 19 points and five rebounds. Mike Harris and Walton supplied 18 and 11 points, respectively.
Overall, the teams recorded similar shooting percentages and comparable numbers in rebounding. Redlands slighted edged its opponents with a 46.3% clip, and the Kingsmen nabbed one more rebound than the Bulldogs.
Redlands (12-12, 7-6 SCIAC) faces a must-win situation on Tuesday in order to advance to the SCIAC Postseason Tournament. The squad faces Caltech on Senior Night at 7:30 p.m. in Currier Gym.