BAILEY DOUBLE: LANCERS ESCAPE JEOPARDY, GET IN TOURNAMENT
2/27/2006 10:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The junior guard from Alaska put together his best games of the season right when California Baptist needed those most, and as a result, the Lancers live to see another season?the postseason.
Bailey scored a game-high 18 points, 15 in the first half, and hit a career-high 5 treys, to lift the Lancers to 74-67 regular-season ending win at Biola Monday night.
Needing wins in each of their final 2 games, this one vaults the Lancers into the GSAC Tournament as they move to 13-15 overall, 8-12 GSAC. Biola falls to 19-11, 11-9.
The win not only puts the Lancers into the conference tournament, but it gives them sweet revenge against the Eagles, who handed the Lancers their worst loss of the season (75-49) a month ago.
Bailey, who hit all 5 of his bombs in the first half, picked right up where he left off Friday's win over The Master's when he hit consecutive 3-point bombs in the final 2 minutes to give the Lancers the lead for good in a 69-63 win over the Mustangs. Tonight, he did it at the front end when he sank consecutive bombs to give the Lancers a quick 6-2 lead they never lost in the wire-to-wire win.
Perhaps playing their finest basketball of the season, the Lancers, whose season has been on the line since last week, earn a date with the NAIA's No. 8-ranked Azusa Pacific, which just wrapped up its 13th GSAC title since 1993. The Lancers, who took the Cougars to the wire in each of their 2 meetings this year, will visit the Felix Event Center Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Four Lancers reached double figures. Junior Denson had 16 points and 6 assists.
California Baptist never trailed and wasted little time in putting this one out of reach. Brandon Warner, who led Biola with 18 points, made it 10-8 when the Lancers scored 5 straight, the last 3 from Bailey's third trey, to take a 15-8 lead. Paul Guerrero cut it down to 5, but Bailey hit another triple, and Peter Rajniak followed with a jumper to make it 20-10 with 11:53 to go in the half.
The Lancers shot .619 (26-for-42) for the game, including .636 (7-for-11) from beyond the arc. They were 6-for-8 from downtown in the first half.
CBU led 28-19 with 6:49 remaining when Denson put back a missed lay-up by Bailey, who followed Denson's tip-in with a 3-pointer to give the Lancers a 33-19 lead with 4:30 to play in the half. They led 37-23 when Evan Timperley followed an Andrew Bruckner 3-point play with a lay-up to give the Lancers a 42-23 lead, their largest of the game, with 1:02 left in the half.
The 19-point advantage was more than enough cushion as Biola began to chip away in the second half. The Lancers were able to maintain a double-digit lead for most of the half before the Eagles were able to cut it down to 9 on 2 separate occasions. However, both times Biola got within 9, the Lancers answered with 4 straight to push the lead up to 13. A pair of Denson free throws gave the Lancers a 65-52 lead with 1:49 to play.
Biola was able to get within 5 (69-64), but Denson responded with 4 straight free throws to put the lead back up to 9 and put the game away. The Lancers were 10-for-15 from the floor in the second half.
Bruckner finished with 13 points, a game-high 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. Jemell Swafford chipped in with 10 points and 6 rebounds.
