CBU Outhustles Concordia for Win

Saturday, January 14

Riverside, Calif.

5:00 PM

California Baptist University

109

Concordia (CA)

Concordia

California Baptist

109

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

CBU Outhustles Concordia for Win

1/14/2017 7:51:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Defense and rebounding fed into California Baptist University's offense, which spelled disaster for Concordia University of Irvine Saturday night in the Van Dyne Gym.

A 109-82 victory over the Eagles kept the 11^th-ranked Lancers' unblemished PacWest record intact, as they improved to 17-2, 8-0 in the conference. Concordia slides to 6-7, 4-3, with Academy of Art visiting CBU on Monday for a 5 p.m. tipoff.

Hustle secured the win for CBU, as the Lancers out-rebounded the Eagles 55-43, forced 28 turnovers and held CUI to a 37.8 shooting percentage.

It was an all-around team effort, as CBU shot 47.6 percent (40-for-84) from the floor and 87.5 from the free-throw line (21-24), while 11 Lancers scored in the game. Cassidy Mihalko led the way with a game-high 30 points on 12-of-19 shooting – just two off her career single-game record for points. The senior guard topped off a big double-double with 14 rebounds, four steals and a block.

Courtney Nelson (15), Kamille Diaz (13), Emma Meriggioli (11) and Lexy Ram (10) all finished in double figures. Diaz added four steals and four assists. Tori Mitchell ended up with eight points and seven rebounds.

Concordia managed to keep it close in the first quarter, down by just one, 18-17, with 53 seconds to play. The Lancers got some breathing room when they scored six-straight points – with Nelson cashing in four of them – in a 12 second span to take a 24-17 lead just before the second quarter.

Nine points from Mihalko fueled a 15-3, second-quarter run that widened CBU's cushion to 43-27 with 3:45 remaining in the first half. CUI managed to trim its deficit down to 12, 50-38, by halftime, however.

CBU got better as the game went on and opened its lead up to as much as 19 points in the third quarter, with an 8-0 run bookended by two Diaz layups to make it 65-46 with 5:27 to go in the third. The Eagles were able to avoid a 20-point deficit up until the fourth quarter.

Another nine-point outburst from Mihalko set up a 12-0 run that upped CBU's lead to 25, 93-68, with 5:49 to play. The Lancers bench took over in the final few minutes, and increased the margin to 28, 104-76, with 1:46 to go on a 7-0 run sparked by five points from Kristine Sellona.