ORANGE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team picked up a huge win on the road Wednesday night beating Chapman University 86-77 to improve to 11-3, 5-0 SCIAC. The Bulldogs have won five in a row and currently sit atop the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Standings.
The Maroon and Grey who Received Votes in the most recent d3hoops.com National Polls were led by first-year Cameron Brown (Bakersfield, CA) who earned his first start of his collegiate career and what a performance pouring in a career high 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting along with six rebounds (tied a career high) and three steals. Chozen Amadi (Dallas, TX) tossed in 16 points with five boards, three assists and two steals, Khyree Armstead (Mountlake Terrace, WA) added his first double double this season with 13 points and 10 boards, coupled with four assists and two steals, and Colin McCarthy (Redwood City, CA) chipped in with 11 points, six of which came from the free-throw line. He also had five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
The Bulldogs got off to a slow start in the first half trailing early by double digits, 20-6. This double-digit deficit continued down to the nine-minute mark of the half before Josh Himel (Jacksonville, FL) knocked down a three off a Ben Peterson (El Segundo, CA) assist to make it a seven-point game, 26-19.
Himel's three sparked twelve unanswered for the Maroon and Grey as they swung the momentum, while taking a 28-26 lead with 6:10 remaining in the period. Brown had seven points during the run and McCarthy made the bucket that put UR in front.
The remainder of the half was back-and-forth as the game became deadlocked on four different occasions, the last coming at 34. Across the final 4:00 minutes Redlands took over closing the half on a 10-4 run, which saw Brown add two free throws and a layup, Amadi knock down a jumper and connect inside, and Armstead finish things off with a layup that moved the score to 44-38. Chapman was able to get one last three at the buzzer though as UR entered the break up by three, 44-41.
UR came out strong defensively in the second half holding the Panthers scoreless over the first four minutes, while scoring thirteen points to grab their largest lead of the game, which was 16, 57-41. Nathaniel Johnson (Seattle, WA), Sam Abere (Lake Oswego, OR), and Brown started the run off with a couple of layups and a jumper, Armstead would add two baskets himself and McCarthy would drain a triple.
The Bulldogs were able to hold this momentum enough to maintain their double-digit lead until there was only 6:58 left in the game when the Panthers scored five unanswered to pull within eight, 69-61.
With less than five minutes to play Chapman went on another run, this time getting within four, 71-67, with 3:41 on the clock.
But this four-point deficit was the closest they would get as Redlands would put the finishing touches on the road win scoring fifteen of the next twenty points thanks to nine free throws from McCarthy, Amadi, and Armstead, three points from Brown, which included a two-handed jam and a Himel three-pointer.
Redlands shot 46.2% from the field, 28.6% from behind the arc, and 62.1% from the free-throw line. They outrebounded the Panthers 45-36, forced 21 turnovers and picked up 21 points off of them, posted 42 points in the paint, 24 fastbreak points, and received 20 points from the bench.
The Bulldogs return home this Saturday, January 14 for a doubleheader with the women's team going up against California Lutheran University beginning at 7:00pm.