Solid Start to 2018

Wednesday, January 3

Riverside, Calif.

7:00 PM

California Baptist University

11-2, 4-2PacWest

Dominican

3-9, 2-3PacWest

Dominican University of California

California Baptist

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

1/3/2018 9:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Sammi Wellman, Director of Sports Information

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Keeping hot to start the new year, California Baptist University dominated an 84-60 victory over Dominican University of California Wednesday night – its fifth-straight win.

The Lancers improve to 11-2 overall, 4-1 in the PacWest. The Penguins drop to 3-9 on the year, 2-3 in conference.

"I thought we played with great effort," said Coach Rick Croy. "We've been working daily on just continuing to play hard and play together and I thought our guys did that tonight."

Jordan Heading had a hot night shooting, finishing with 23 points on an 8-of-14 performance, including 5-of-10 from three-point range. He also dished out five assists and had four rebounds.

"I've been struggling a little bit with my shot so I've been trying to stay after it, stay positive and just shoot the ball and it'll go in," said Heading.

Kalidou Diouf followed with 16 points (8-of-12) and eight rebounds. Gabe Taylor rounded out the trio of Lancers in double figures with 14 points (5-of-13). De'jon Davis led the rebounding charge with 11 boards, helping CBU out-rebound the Penguins 53-to-33.

"I think we played a team game, we all came together and everyone contributed," said Taylor. "I think that will be big for us going down the stretch, everyone just knowing your role and playing it as hard as you can every night."

It was back-and-forth action in the opening minutes of the game before CBU took off on an 8-0 spurt to jump in front, 13-4. Heading sparked the run by finding an open lane to the hoop and followed with a triple off a Ty Rowell assist. Jason Todd contributed the last three points of the run by drawing a foul as he made his way to the basket and rounded the play up to three.

Dominican tried to hang with the home team, but CBU grabbed separation early. Less than eight minutes into the game, Diouf grabbed an offensive rebound and finished the put-back to give his team its first double-digit lead of the night, 18-7, and the Lancers never looked back from there.

Just seconds before halftime, Heading went coast to coast off an in-bound pass to give CBU a 42-28 cushion heading into the break.

The Lancers came out of the break unstoppable, scoring 12 unanswered points to open up a commanding 26-point lead. Diouf started the run with half of those points, followed by Bul Kuol rattling in a three. CBU's defense stayed strong, not giving any Penguins second looks at the basket, before Taylor capped the run with a layup and a free throw, 54-28.

Dominican managed to cut the scoring spree briefly, even dropping the margin under 20-points (69-50), but the visitors wouldn't get any closer than that. CBU closed out the game with a Rowell layup and two Davis free throws to seal the 84-60 victory.

"We came into this game just focusing on playing really hard, playing every possession our best," said Heading. "I think we did that really well tonight. We moved the ball around really well, found our good shots and came out with the win."

The Lancers will look to carry momentum into a tough week, facing Point Loma on Friday and Dixie State on Monday – both on the road – before hosting rival Azusa Pacific a week from Saturday.

"Every win gives us confidence and we've got a couple huge away games coming up," said Heading. "Those are going to test us big so we need these wins to propel us into the next ones."