It was one of those nights for the University of La Verne men's basketball team as it struggled offensively for much of the evening en route to a 57-46 defeat to the University of Redlands in the regular season finale Tuesday night at Frantz Athletic Court.
Redlands opened a 9-2 lead on the Leopards in the opening 3:30 of action and didn't look back en route to a 30-14 halftime advantage. The Bulldogs led by as many as 27 points midway through the second half before the Leos closed the deficit to nine points in the final minute.
The win gave the Bulldogs (14-11, 11-3 SCIAC) a share of the conference title with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. UR will be the #1 seed in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament by virtue of a season sweep of the Stags.
The Leopards held their only lead of the game in the opening minute on an Alex Wolpe jumper to grab a 2-0 lead. From there, the Bulldogs reeled off nine straight points and would grab their first double-digit advantage on a Jack Colston three-pointer to take a 23-12 lead with 4:01 remaining in the first half.
La Verne made just seven field goals in the first stanza, shooting 31.8% (7-22) prior to intermission. In addition, the Leos failed to make a three-point basket during the opening 20 minutes in going 0-6 beyond the arc.
Trailing 48-21 with 10:59 remaining, the Leopards shaved 12 points off the Bulldog lead in less than three minutes as a Jeremy Lay triple cut the deficit to 50-33 with 8:00 remaining. La Verne slowly chiped away at the lead, finally getting to within single digits on a layup from Sam Adams with 57 seconds left.
Matt Dietrich scored a game-high 18 points to lead Redlands while teammate Brian Kuklock added 11 points.
Trevor Woodland led La Verne with 7 points while John Leggett totaled 6 points. Wolpe, Tyler Hoyt and Jonathan Bastos added 5 points each. Hoyt led the Leos in rebounding with 7 boards.
La Verne (13-12, 8-6 SCIAC) concludes conference play tied for third in the league standings and holds the #3 seed entering the SCIAC Postseason Tournament. The Leopards will face CMS Friday at 7:30 pm at Ducey Gymnasium in Claremont.
