The University of La Verne men's basketball squad won its third consecutive road game in conference play by rallying in the second half to defeat Cal Lutheran in a 48-44 defensive struggle Saturday night at Gilbert Arena in Thousand Oaks.
With points at a premium, the Leos outscored the Kingsmen 18-6 during a critical eight-minute span during the latter stages of the contest to earn the program's first win at Cal Lutheran since February 19, 2005, when La Verne topped CLU 90-80.
La Verne (9-7, 4-1 SCIAC) trailed by six points at 35-29 with 8:33 remaining before outscoring the Kingsmen 8-2 over the next 4:37 to tie the game at 37 on a pair of free throws from Tyler Hoyt with 3:56 left to play.
The Leopards led 42-41 before layups by Austin Napolitano and Jake Veith pushed the advantage to five at 46-41 with 57 seconds to play. After Cal Lutheran missed a three-pointer on the ensuing possession, Sam Adams added a free throw to put the Leos up 47-41 with 38 seconds remaining.
Greg Grimm sliced the Cal Lutheran deficit in half with a three-pointer to pull the Kingsmen within three at 47-44. But CLU (8-8, 2-3 SCIAC) would not get any closer as Napolitano added another free throw while the Kingsmen failed to connect in the final seconds.
The Leopard defense held CLU to 32.6% shooting from the field en route to yielding fewer than 50 points to an opponent for the third time this season. La Verne also dominated the boards, outrebounding the Kingsmen 45-27. Though the Leos committed 19 turnovers, they outscored CLU 22-16 in the paint and tallied 11 bench points compared to 6 for the Kingsmen.
Napolitano registered a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds while teammate Alex Wolpe came within one rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points and 9 boards. Trevor Woodland contributed 9 points and 6 rebounds on the night with Adams pulling down 7 rebounds in the win.
Grimm tallied 14 points for Cal Lutheran to lead all scorers. Aaron Van Klaveren chipped in with 13 points for the Kingsmen.
The Leopards are currently in a second place tie in the SCIAC standings and will face conference leader Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (9-6, 5-0 SCIAC) at Frantz Athletic Court on Wednesday night. Tip-off is 7:30 pm.
