On a positive note, Panthers close out season with a win

ORANGE, Calif. - With a winning season hanging in the balance, the Chapman University men's basketball team used a solid second half to defeat visiting Cal Lutheran University 73-54 at the Hutton Sports Center in SCIAC action on Tuesday night, brining the 2012-13 season to a close.

Following an early February five-game losing streak that knocked the Panthers out of playoff contention and threatened their chances of a winning season, the team rallied to win their final two games to finish above .500 overall and at .500 in conference play.

Leading by one at halftime, Chapman (13-12 overall, 8-8 SCIAC) opened the second on a 9-0 run, building momentum from sophomore G Colin Zavrsnick's three-pointer to end the half. The Panthers then extended their lead midway through the period with a 17-3 run to give them their biggest lead of the night at 62-40 with 7:53 left and cruised from there.

Sophomore G Taylor Hamasaki was in the midst of the Chapman offensive outburst, scoring 13 of his game-high 20 points in the second half on 6 of 9 shooting. Zavrsnick finished with 14 points, including a pair of threes and sophomore F Justin Young, making just his third start of the season, scored 11 points and added seven rebounds.

In the first half Chapman was slow to find its rhythm, falling behind by as many as five points on two different occasions before tying the score at 21 at the 6-minute mark. The half saw 10 lead changes, including five in the final six minutes, ending with Zavrsnick's three before the intermission which gave the Panthers a 30-29 advantage.

On 'Senior Night', Chapman honored graduating seniors F Takeshi Clifford and G Rabbie Mojaddidi who started and scored five and seven points apiece. For Mojaddidi, that was a career-high to go along with two steals.

For Cal Lutheran (10-15 overall, 6-10 SCIAC), senior F Jayvaughn Nettles scored 13 points and added seven boards. The Kingsmen end the season on a three-game losing streak.

With the victory, the Panthers extended their streak of consecutive winning seasons to 20. The last time they finished below .500 was 1992-93 when they went 7-19 in head coach Mike Bokosky's first season. Chapman concludes its first season in the SCIAC in sixth place overall.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Boxscore: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/boxscores/20130219_xdz3.xml

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