A hot shooting night from Trevor Woodland helped propel the University of La Verne to its first road win over the University of Redlands in nearly five seasons.
Led by Woodland's game-high 26 points, La Verne shot 54.0% from the field while limiting the Bulldogs to 39.3% shooting en route to a 75-63 triumph in SCIAC men's basketball action Wednesday night at Currier Gym in Redlands.
The Leopards dominated a stretch from 2:35 in the first half to the 11:49 mark of the second half in which they outscored the Bulldogs 30-12.
La Verne trailed 21-15 with 9:15 in the first half before embarking on a 8-0 run culminating on a three-pointer from Woodland to take its first lead of the game at 23-21. The Bulldogs would reclaim the advantage and hold a 30-27 lead with 2:35 left before intermission.
From there, the Leopards went on another 8-0 flurry ending with a triple from Jeremy Lay with 35 seconds remaining to post a 35-30 halftime advantage.
La Verne (8-7, 3-1 SCIAC) never trailed in the second half and opened with a 13-6 run to grab a 48-36 cushion on the Bulldogs with 14:50 remaining. The Leopards held Redlands to a single field goal during the first six minutes after intermission and eventually stretched their lead to 15 points on a layup from John Leggett to take a 57-42 lead with 11:49 left to play.
The Leos maintained their double-digit advantage into the late stages of the contest before the Bulldogs - aided by three steals by Kent Ervin in a span of 23 seconds - sliced the deficit to eight points at 62-54 with 4:52 to play. Redlands (6-9, 3-1 SCIAC) would not get any closer as the Leopards made 8 of 12 free throws down the stretch while the Bulldogs made just one field goal in the final 3:36 of regulation.
Statistically, the Leopards out-rebounded the Bulldogs 35-29 and garnered 19 points from non-starters compared to 14 for the Bulldog bench. La Verne also forced 15 Bulldog turnovers and scored 20 of its points off turnovers.
Woodland made 11 of his 17 field goal attempts while connecting on 4 three-point field goals. Overall the Leopards hit 8 of his 13 attempts beyond the arc. Conversely, the Bulldogs made just 3 of 19 attempts from three-point range.
Austin Napolitano was the only other Leopard to reach double figures in scoring with 10 points. Napolitano also led the Leos in rebounding with a game-high 8 boards. Jonathan Bastos enjoyed a solid outing with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists.
Andrew Mills led Redlands in scoring with 18 points while Jordan Sanvictores tallied a team-high 7 rebounds in the defeat.
With the win, the Leopards move into a second place tie with the Bulldogs in the SCIAC standings behind leader Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (8-6, 4-0 SCIAC).
The last victory for La Verne over the Bulldogs in Currier Gym occurred when the Leopards topped Redlands 141-133 on February 8, 2006.
La Verne continues conference action this Saturday as it travels to Thousand Oaks to take on California Lutheran (8-7, 2-2 SCIAC). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
