REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team picked up their first upset win on the season Saturday night beating No. 28 University of St. Thomas (TX) 80-72 inside Currier Gym.
The win moves the Bulldogs to 2-1 as they pick up momentum heading into the Thanksgiving Break. They also handed the Celts their first loss.
Chozen Amadi (Dallas, TX) led all scorers with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting along with a 4-for-6 mark from deep. He was joined by Colin McCarthy (Redwood City, CA) who put up 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds off the bench. Khyree Armstead (Mountlake Terrace, WA) chipped in with 13 points, six rebounds, two steals and eight assists as he played 30 minutes.
Amadi started his big night with a three :15 seconds into the game and Armstead put UR back on top, 7-6 following a layup at the 15:51 mark.
With 13:14 left in the half the Bulldogs trailed by their largest margin, four, 15-11. The deficit stayed at fourwith 7:37 remaining in the half as the Bulldogs offense had only scored ten points across six minutes.
Cal Hansen (Burien, WA) sparked a Bulldog run that took them from a four-point deficit to a five-point lead, 30-25. During the run Khair Jackson (Canoga Park, CA) had four points and Robert Power (Pacific Palisades, CA) knocked down a three.
After a pair of runs from the Celts that got them with a possession, Redlands was able to respond and maintained their five-point lead at the half, 43-38 thanks to a Neil Owens (Pasadena, CA) triple followed by a Sam Abere (Lake Oswego, OR) lay-in.
McCarthy hit a jumper at the 14:15 mark of the second half as the Bulldogs took their first double-digit lead of the game, 54-43. Amadi then reappeared and took over with three big daggers from deep to extend the lead to 15, 65-50, with 11:09 left.
The Celts made a few small runs to get within single digits, but the Bulldogs covered them up and extended the advantage to eleven, 75-64, with a minute and a half left in the game after McCarthy had three unanswered points. The Bulldogs made five of their six free throws down the stretch to seal the upset.
Redlands held the advantage statistically in multiple key areas, including the free throw line where they were plus six (12-6), rebounds (38-32), turnovers (12-17), points off turnovers (18-7), second chance points (16-10), and notably, thanks to their depth, their bench was dominant with a plus 15-point mark (33-18).
The Bulldogs will have six days off before they host Northwest Conference opponents Willamette University and George Fox University on Friday and Saturday, November 25-26. Both games slated to be played inside Currier Gym at 7:00pm.