Homecoming Victory

Saturday, February 9

Riverside, Calif.

7:00 PM

California Baptist University

Kansas City

UMKC

California Baptist

2/9/2019 10:12:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box Score

By: Mike Minyard, Assoc. AD for External Relations

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – California Baptist appears to be hitting its stride as it heads into the final stretch of the regular season and into March. The Lancers defeated UMKC, 70-60, in front of a Homecoming Weekend crowd of 4,813 fans at the CBU Events Center on Saturday night. CBU has won three straight games in Western Athletic Conference play.

UMKC won the first match-up last month in Kansas City, 84-68. The Lancers simply did not play their brand of basketball that night and Milan Acquaah, the leading scorer in the WAC, was held to a season-low eight points.

It was a different story tonight despite the Roos using an 11-2 early run to take an 11-6 lead just eight minutes into the game. Senior Jordan Heading caught fire, scoring all 13 of his first half points in the final 10:25. The Lancers took a 31-30 lead to the locker room at halftime and would not trail the rest of the evening.

The Lancers shot the ball much better in the second period at 51.7-percent (15-29) compared to 38.7-percent (12-31) in the first 20 minutes. CBU's lead would grow to 13 points with 8:27 on the clock after using runs of 11-3 and 13-5 to open the second stanza. UMKC was able to cut the Lancer lead to nine a few times over the next four minutes, but CBU held steady leading mostly by double-digits until the final buzzer.

De'jon Davis goin to work! #LanceUp pic.twitter.com/qh8i9JjA01
— CBU Men's Basketball (@CBUmbb) February 10, 2019

Heading finished the game with 24 points and seven rebounds. Acquaah posted 22 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal. He has now scored 20 or more points in 16-of-23 games played this season. De'jon Davis posted his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 boards. Davis has had three double-doubles in the last five games.

Oh. My. Goodness. 😱😱😱#LanceUp pic.twitter.com/DiozWaHf2X
— CBU Men's Basketball (@CBUmbb) February 10, 2019

Rob Whitfield scored a team-high 17 points for the Roos. Jordan Giles and Marvin Nesbitt, Jr. added 15 and 10 points, respectively. UMKC falls to 8-16 overall and 3-6 in the WAC.

Cal Baptist coach Rick Croy has done a terrific job in transition into D-1 ranks. With a win tonight against UMKC, the Lancers will move to 5-5 in WAC play. Croy led the program to the Division II tourney each of his five seasons as CBU.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 10, 2019

CBU improves to 13-10 overall and 5-5 in WAC play. CBU had a stretch earlier in the season where it went 7-1 (from 11/29/18 to 1/3/19) with the only loss coming against Big West Conference leader UC Irvine (21-5; 9-1) in a 69-66 decision back on Dec. 5. The Lancers went on to defeat the defending WAC regular season and tournament champion New Mexico State (20-4; 9-1), 82-76, at home on Jan. 3.

Two nights later against UTRGV, CBU stumbled on its home floor in the second half giving up a 16-point lead with 17 minutes remaining to the Vaqueros. The Lancers would drop five of six games including the contest against UTRGV. With the physical appearance of tension and stress building up, CBU was able to shake it off in a 75-64 road win at Seattle U that now looks to have been the launching point for the best played three-game stretch of the season. CBU has since defeated Chicago State by a 50-point margin on Thursday night and was able to avenge a poor performance on the road last month against UMKC tonight.

The stat that stands out the most in the three-game stretch: turnovers. Or, the lack of turnovers. CBU entered tonight's contest averaging 13.2 turnovers per game. During the six-game stretch when the Lancers went 1-5, they averaged 16 per game. CBU has had only 17 total turnovers in its last three games… all wins. To help put that further into perspective, the Lancers had 18 turnovers in their loss at UMKC.

CBU has seven games remaining with six of them against conference foes with a strong possibility of postseason play at stake. There is a lot to play for as we close-in on March.

The Lancers will step aside from league play for a non-conference contest against Bethesda at the CBU Events Center on Tuesday. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.