NEW YEAR'S WIN
FRESNO, Calif. ? California Baptist rang in the new year with an 81-62 win over Fresno Pacific in its first game in 2008. The Lancers (8-2, 2-1 GSAC) broke a two-game losing streak to the Sunbirds (6-7, 0-4 GSAC) and recorded a win in Fresno for the first time since 2005.
“It was great to pick up a win so long after not playing and especially with it being on the road,” said CBU head coach Danelle Bishop. “We had a good level of intensity tonight and we did a good job of distributing the ball.”
Nicole Davis scored a game-high 28 points and was just two assists short of double-double with eight to lead the way for CBU. Megan Bradford and Jeanine Deno also scored in double figures with Bradford scoring 13 and Deno notching 11.
Bryana Williams pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds including seven offensive boards. She had 10 rebounds in the first half alone.
“Her rebounds, especially her offensive boards, came at very key points in the game,” said Bishop. “She's always there. You look at how tall she is and wonder how she's so good at getting rebounds. It's all about heart with her.”
The Lancers held the Sunbirds to just 35.7 percent shooting from the field and forced 17 turnovers.
“If we learn to communicate better, there's no way to tell how well we can hold teams to a low shooting percentage,” said Bishop. “When we figure out how to communicate well, we could force most offenses to really struggle.”
CBU didn't waste anytime getting on the board as it opened the game on a 9-2 run and took a 23-6 lead after a 14-4 run. The Lancers took their biggest lead of the half at 34-15 on a pair of free throws by Cassandra Tigget. FPU closed the gap right before the half with an 8-2 run to make it 36-23 heading into the second half.
Fresno cut the lead to 10 (36-26) in the opening minutes of the second half, but that was as close as the Sunbirds came. Later in the half the Lancers led 58-35 after a 7-0 run that included a pair of jumpers by Nicole Wilhite.
Bradford gave the Lancers their biggest lead of the game at 79-51 with a layup with 4:02 left.
CBU shot 44.3 percent (31-for-70) from the field and hit 54.5 percent (18-for-33) and was 4-of-10 from beyond the arc in the second half.
The Lancers will now travel to Santa Cruz, Calif., where it will take on Albany College of Pharmacy, Friday at 4 p.m., and UC Santa Cruz, Saturday at 3 p.m.
