California Baptist University
2-1,0-0WAC
Portland State University
4-0,0-0Big Sky
The Lancers Falter in Second Half in Loss to the Vikings
11/17/2023 10:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball
RIVERSIDE--- The California Baptist University men's basketball team opened the Joust Tournament with a match-up with the Portland State Vikings.
The Vikings entered the contest undefeated at 3-0, including coming off a big road win at UC Santa Barbara last Thursday. The Vikings stayed hot with a 66-63 victory, dropping the Lancers to 2-1 on the young season.
PLAY-BY-PLAY:
The Vikings and Lancers played to a defensive stalemate as both teams got after one another on that side of the court. The Vikings, one of the top-rated defenses in the country last season, played to their style and forced eight turnovers in the first half, holding the Lancers to under 40% from the field. CBU consistently held serve and got the free throw line to earn the five-point halftime advantage. Yvan Ouedraogo led the first-half offense for CBU with nine points on 3/4 shooting and hauled in five boards.
The Lancers built up a 14-point lead in the second half of action, led by a stellar bench punch from Blondeau Tchoukuiegno. Blondeau netted 11 of his 18 in the period and connected on all four shots, including three from behind the arc. The Vikings stayed pesty and galvanized a 17-3 run to tie the game at 61 apiece with under two minutes to play.
The team exchanged turnovers and missed shots over the next minute before a layup by Portland State's Isaiah Johnson gave the Vikings their first lead of the second half. Ouedraogo connected on a clutch bucket around the paint with two seconds left to knot the game at 63 before Portland State's Ismail Habib heaved a shot from half-court and banked it in to win it for the Vikings.
STATISTICAL NOTABLES:
The Lancers offense was led by the quartet of Dominique Daniels Jr., Tchoukuiegno, Ouedraogo, and Brantly Stevenson, who scored 57 of the team's 63 points. Tchoukuiegno led the way with 18 off the bench on 7/9 shooting.
Ouedraogo, meanwhile, continued a hot offensive streak, setting a new career high for the second straight contest as a Lancer with 16 points on 75% shooting from the floor. Yvan has scored the most points in a three-game span of his career with 36 points in the team's three contests.
As the game would indicate, the two teams had nearly identical box scores, with both shooting 35% from the perimeter and getting 29 points from their benches. The difference in the ball game proved to be the Vikings getting into the paint to score four more points than the Lancers could.
NEXT: The Lancers will play the second game of the Joust Tournament against St. Thomas on Saturday, November 18, at 5 p.m.
