RIVERSIDE CHILL
2/27/2011 5:26:00 AM | Men's Basketball
It wasn't any warmer inside the Van Dyne Gym.
California Baptist University shot an ice cold 29.8 percent from the floor, its lowest percentage since December, and Kendall Holmes and Jerante Morgan combined for 32 points to lead Fresno Pacific to a 75-49 Golden State Athletic Conference win in both team's regular-season finale Saturday night.
The Lancers' 49 points is their second-lowest total of the season.
The loss is the Lancers' third straight, their first three-game losing streak in conference-play, as they fall to 14-15 overall, 8-12 GSAC. They finish in seventh place and will play at Azusa Pacific Thursday night in the opening round of the GSAC Tournament.
The Sunbirds improve to 19-10, 12-8. It is just their 10th win in 31 games ever in Riverside and it snaps a seven-game losing skid in the Van Dyne Gym.
Morgan (7-for-9) finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Holmes (7-for-12) also had 16 points.
Luke Evans led the Lancers with 12 points and seven rebounds. Ivan Patterson added nine points.
Fresno Pacific never trailed and turned a 15-point halftime advantage into a comfortable 26-point win. In fact, after the Lancers got within 20-16 with seven minutes left in the first half, the Sunbirds proceeded to outscore them 55-33 over the final 33 minutes.
The Lancers were just 17-for-57 from the floor and an even more frigid 13 percent from beyond the arc, misfiring on 20 of 23 attempts.
Deshaun Legree's 3-pointer gave the Sunbirds their largest lead, 62-32, with 6:30 left. Three minutes before that De'Jon Prescott scored a lay-up that proved to be the Lancers' lone field goal in a near 11-minute span midway through the second half. Luke Evans scored to make it 43-28 with 16:24 left, and the Lancers proceeded to make just one of 16 shots over the next 10:45 until Kevin Deeb answered Legree's trey with one of his own.
The Lancers missed 12 of their first 14 shots while the Sunbirds made eight of 13 to jettison out to an 18-6 lead less than nine minutes in. CBU used a 10-2 run to get within 20-16 with 6:47 left, but three turnovers led to six straight Sunbird points and two straight triples from Matt Christman pushed the lead up to 32-18 with 2:12 left in the half.
Justus Von Wright's jumper broke a four-minute scoring drought for the Lancers, but Adam Kado drilled a 3-pointer with four seconds left to give the Sunbirds a 35-20 halftime lead.
The Lancers shot just 30.4 percent, making 7-of-23 attempts in the first half. CBU committed 13 first-half turnovers, just two more than the Sunbirds, but Fresno Pacific took full advantage, outscoring the Lancers, 15-6, on giveaways.
The Sunbirds finished shooting 53.7 percent (29-for-54) and outscored the Lancers, 42-18, in the paint.
