PASADENA, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Basketball team got back on track Wednesday night on the road cruising past Caltech 82-50 led by Robert Power (Pacific Palisades, CA) who poured in 20 points off the bench.
Redlands improves to 15-5, 9-2 SCIAC and currently sits in a tie for 2nd Place within the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings. The 20 points put up by Power puts in him double figures in five of his last six games after nine such games in his first 34 career appearances.
Eleven players recorded at least a point on the evening. Along with Power in double figures was Khyree Armstead (Mountlake Terrace, WA) who posted 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting along with four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Colin McCarthy (Redwood City, CA) added nine points off the bench to go with six rebounds, Nathaniel Johnson (Seattle, WA) chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds along with a game high four blocks, and Cameron Brown (Bakersfield, CA), who played only 19 minutes finished with five points, four rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Brown and Khair Jackson (Canoga Park, CA) each broke their career-high for steals with five.
After a slow start with both teams combining for just ten points in the first four minutes, the Bulldogs would score twelve points over the subsequent four minutes to take a 12-point lead, 18-6.
This advantage expanded to sixteen points, 27-11 following an Armstead triple and a Johnson layin coming off a feed from Brown.
The Beavers did not go away quietly, starting a 7-2 run to get within single digits again, 29-20, with 5:28 left in the half. Redlands though would take control over the final five minutes as they outscored Caltech 21-6. Nine of their points came courtesy of Armstead; Power also added a three, McCarthy hit a layup after a Jackson steal, Sam Abere (Lake Oswego, OR) made a three, and Cal Hansen (Burien, WA) and Johnson would each add two points as Redlands took a commanding 50-26 lead into intermission.
In the opening four minutes of the second half the Bulldogs continued to grow their advantage, as their lead reached 29, 58-29, following an 8-2 push.
Following the great start, U of R's offense would go cold, scoring only two points over the next five minutes. This however would not matter as the Bulldog defensive unit would maintain the 22-point advantage.
Less than two minutes after scoring only two points in five minutes, the offense came back to life claiming their first 30-point lead of the game, 69-38, with 9:53 left. Their advantage would get within one of 40 points, 79-40, as the Bulldogs completed the lopsided win, 82-50.
The Bulldogs shot 43.6% from the field, 33.3% from three-point territory and 57.1% from the free-throw line. Despite being outrebounded 46-37 managed to total 16 assists, forced 35 CIT turnovers and turned them into 40 points, added 17 second chance points, 38 points in the paint and 44 points from the bench.
Redlands will return to Currier this Saturday, February 4 as the second game of a doubleheader with the women, with their tipoff set for 7:00 p.m. against the top team in SCIAC Pomona-Pitzer.