CBU Christens Events Center With A Win

Friday, November 10

Riverside, Calif.

11:30 AM

California Baptist University

1-0

Cal State San Marcos

0-1

Cal State San Marcos

California Baptist

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

CBU Christens Events Center With A Win

11/10/2017 6:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – It may have been a new season and in a new building, but California Baptist University kept its home winning streak going with an 80-63, season-opening victory over Cal State San Marcos on Friday.

The Lancers open the year 1-0, while the Cougars start 0-1.

It was the first game of the 2017-18 season and the first in the CBU Events Center, with a program record 1,024 fans ticketed, for the tipoff of the CBU Conference Challenge. Despite five players and four true freshman making their CBU debuts, the Lancers did not miss a beat and stretched their home winning streak – that now spans three seasons and two buildings – to 34 consecutive games.

"It was a lot of fun out there," Coach Jarrod Olson said. "The Events Center was pretty awesome, it was a great atmosphere and we were excited to be the first game in there. We are happy to get CBU its first win in there."

One of those freshmen, Ane Olaeta Larrauri, put on quite a show with a game-high 24 points on 50-percent shooting (10-20) from the floor. The point guard also had six assists, six rebounds and a steal. Sophomore Lexy Ram and junior transfer Blaysen Varnadoe (five rebounds) scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, in the win, while Tori Mitchell nearly completed a double-double with nine points and 12 rebounds.

"Everybody is expected to contribute," Olson said. "We have a lot of new people so it's going to take a while for everyone to come together as a team, but today was definitely a good first step in that direction and I am really happy with how they played."

Olaeta scored the first two points in CBU Events Center history to give the Lancers a 2-0 lead just over two minutes into the game. Olaeta would go on to score her team's first six points to spark a 15-2 Lancer run to start the game. Freshman Maryn Budiman (eight points, four rebounds), Ram, Georgia Dale and Varnadoe would also score in that strong opening charge from the Lancers.

CBU did not let up and pushed its lead to 21-7 at the end of the first quarter after a layup each from Varnadoe, Emily Schmidt and two free throws from Ram.
A layup from Mitchell, a pair of free throws from Dale and another bucket from Olaeta would run CBU's first-half lead to as high as 16, 27-11, before Cal State San Marcos made its first run.

The Cougars cut their deficit all the way down to five, 28-23, but it was the Lancers who finished the first half strong. A Varnadoe jumper and Budiman three-pointer on an assist from Emma Meriggioli kept CBU in front 33-26 at halftime.

"We just wanted to worry about ourselves, make sure we're improving and playing hard the whole game," Ram said. "We did a good job of rotating on defense, putting on pressure and playing hard."

Cal State San Marcos fought to keep it a five-point deficit, 39-34, two minutes into the second half, but Olaeta scored four-straight points, followed by four more in a row from Varnadoe and then a Budiman layup to make it a 49-36 CBU lead under the halfway mark of the third quarter.

Another short run brought the Cougars within six, 56-50, but layups from Olaeta and Dale put CBU up 60-51 going into the fourth quarter. The Lancers kept the momentum in the final 10-minute session, and three-straight field goals from Ram pushed the lead to 66-51 with 8:15 to play. Cal State San Marcos was not able to cut its deficit under double digits the rest of the game, as CBU came away with the comfortable victory in the end.

The Lancers return to the court Saturday at noon, facing UC San Diego.