Men's basketball clinches tournament berth with win over Redlands
ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University men's basketball team is SCIAC Tournament bound after a decisive 84-59 win over Redlands at Hutton Sports Center on Saturday. Sophomore Rob Nelsen scored 18 points to lead four Panthers in double figures.
The win keeps the Panthers (16-5, 10-3 SCIAC) in first place by two game with three games to play in the regular season. With the Panthers next win, they will clinch the No. 1 seed in the SCIAC Tournament.
Chapman overcame a sluggish start that saw Redlands (11-11, 7-6 SCIAC) take an early 6-0 lead. Junior Luke Hamlin stopped the three-and-a-half minute drought to start the game when he got to the rim for a layup. His bucket sparked a 7-0 run that gave the Panthers the lead before a Redlands' three-pointer from Al Bjekovic gave the Bulldogs the lead right back.
Sophomore James Taylor responded for the Panthers to tie up the game and CU scored the next five points with Nelsen draining a three and Taylor scoring again. The 14-3 run gave the Panthers the lead for good.
Nelsen scored 11 of his 18 points in the first half to help Chapman build a 45-33 lead at the break. The second half was back-and-forth early on but Chapman used another huge run to put the game out of reach. Redlands had the lead down to 10 points with just over 10 minutes to play but the Panthers embarked on a 20-4 run over the next six minutes. Sophomore Tyler Green and Hamlin drained back-to-back threes for a 78-52 lead with just over four minutes left to play and the Panthers cruised the rest of the way.
Green contributed 12 points off the bench while Hamlin finished with 14 points and five assists. Freshman Cam Haslam had 10 points. Senior Davis Dragovich was just shy of a double-double with eight points and nine rebounds. Nelsen had seven rebounds and four assists in addition to his game-high 18 points.
The Panthers are back at home on Wednesday to take on Cal Lutheran at 7:30 p.m. in the Hutton Sports Center.
By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director
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