RIVERSIDE, Calif. – California Baptist University has usually been able to count on its high-powered offense this season, but its defense helped the Lancers sweep the season series with CSU Bakersfield and win its sixth game in a row, with a 67-43 win on Sunday.
Britney Thomas played a big part in the middle, as the junior center had 20 points and 17 rebounds in just 25 minutes.
Ane Olaeta added 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals and
Caitlyn Harper had 11 points and four boards.
Bakersfield shot just 24.2 percent from the floor (15-for-62), 20 percent from three (3-15) and committed 15 turnovers. CBU improves to 15-10 and 8-4 in the Western Athletic Conference to stand alone at second place in the conference standings with four games left to play. The Roadrunners fall to 11-15, 7-6.
CBU has now won nine of its last 10, and will plays its final two regular-season road games next week. The Lancers travel to Seattle U Thursday for a 6 p.m. tip and then face Utah Valley Saturday at 3 p.m.
The Lancers hardly trailed the Roadrunners on Saturday, as they started the game on a 9-0 run on back-to-back layups from Thomas and then five-straight points from
Lexy Ram.
CSUB fought back to take a 15-13 lead, but a 20-2 run put the Lancers comfortably in front 34-19 with 3:21 left in the first half. Harper and Dale scored six points each in the run.
The second half was all defense. CSUB fought all the way back to cut its deficit to 10, 40-30, with 4:01 left in the third quarter, but CBU pushed its lead back out to 14, 48-34, going into the fourth. Olaeta and Thomas had three-point plays in that span, while Dale added a fast-break layup.
Defensively, the Lancers stood strong in the fourth quarter and then started finding some openings on offense to run their lead to as many as 26. Olaeta came alive with seven points in the fourth quarter, while Harper had five, as well.
