REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team looked to carry momentum following their 83-76 victory over Cal Lutheran Saturday afternoon into a match-up Monday night with Chapman University. Despite scoring 63 points was unable to come away with the victory as they fell 96-63 inside Currier Gym.
Redlands drops now to 6-5, 2-2 SCIAC, while Chapman improves to 10-2, 2-2 SCIAC.
A trio of Bulldogs recorded double digit scoring efforts led by Neil Owens (Pasadena, CA) who finished with a team high 17 points. He was joined by Darne Duckett (Oakland, CA) who tossed in 13 points with four rebounds and a pair of assists and Justice Marmara (Arlington, TX) who put up 11 points with four boards. Despite not being in double figures scoring Romeo Mays (Vallejo, CA) who was named the SCIAC Defensive Athlete of the Week for his play last week again put up strong numbers defensively with 11 rebounds, eight points, and three blocks.
Chapman connected from long range early that set the tone for the game as they shot a blistering 51.6% from the field, which included a hot 46.4% clip from behind the arc. They had five players in double figures and put up 36 points in the paint.
After a slow start, trailing 15-2, the U of R bounced back with five straight with a layup from Mays and a three-point play from Duckett that made it an eight-point margin. Gunner Wooden (Canton, MI) then knocked down a three-pointer to keep it close, but a pair of triples from CU would then extend the advantage back to double digits. Six in a row by Owens soon after, which included a four-point play after knocking in a triple and getting fouled gave UR some life as Redlands would cut the lead again back to single digits. After that the Maroon and Grey would keep answering in their offensive half, but those buckets were matched by Chapman as they would put together twelve unanswered that opened the game up at 46-24. Duckett, Wooden and Josh Himel (Jacksonville, FL) would try and create some pushback with a few three-pointers right before the break, but it wasn't enough to cut into the CU lead as they led 51-33 at intermission.
Redlands would go on to tack on another 30 points in the second half with Owens adding another 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting, while Mays registered six of his eight points, all three of his blocks and eight boards. But the red hot shooting by Chapman would eventually make the deficit as many as 40 with 2:32 to play as they would put up another 45 points across the final 20:00 minutes.
The Maroon and Grey finished the night shooting 27.3% from the field, 36.8% from three-point territory, and 66.7% from the free-throw line. They brought in 33 rebounds, had 16 points in the paint, 15-second chance points and capitalized on 13 Chapman turnovers with 13 points.
Redlands has one day off to prepare for a Wednesday night match-up, January 19 with the University of La Verne on the road. Tip-off set for 7:00pm.