Cam Haslam's scoring over his past nine games: 28, 27, 25, 22, 16, 18, 37, 30, 24. Chapman athletics photo by Larry Newman

The short answer was “no.”

The question asked of Chapman head coach Mike Bokosky being: Did you see an outburst like this coming from freshman Cam Haslam?

Bokosky’s initial one-word response came only because he has been coaching long enough – 24 seasons to be exact – to know he can’t predict the success of an 18-year-old he hasn’t been around daily.

Soon enough, though, he realized what he had in Haslam, a 6-2, 175-pound guard who’s only leading the SCIAC in scoring at 21.5 points per game for the 11-4 Panthers.

“Cam has ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ is,” Bokosky said. “Didn’t know it, but he’s really made me a much better coach.”

Haslam is from Seattle, but he had heard of Chapman in high school through a family friend. It was at a San Diego tournament he was playing in where he first met a member of the coaching staff. That convinced him to visit, and it was love at first sight.

Much like his coach, Haslam had no expectations for himself this season.

“I just wanted to come in and work hard,” he said.

Pretty easy to see he’s doing much more than that. Haslam is shooting 47 percent from 3-point range and also averaging 3.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.1 steals to go along with a scoring average that is tops in the nation among freshmen.

The accolades have already rolled in.

Haslam is the first athlete in Chapman history to receive SCIAC Athlete of the Week honors three times in one season.

The key? Haslam credits offseason work, his coaches and teammates, but perhaps most importantly, his faith.

“That’s what’s been huge for me,” Haslam said. “There’s a couple guys on the team who I’ve been praying with before games and who I’ve been in fellowship with. I know it’s just D-III basketball and all that, but my faith has really played a huge part in what’s made me be able to enjoy playing and have fun.”

Everyone around him senses that enjoyment. In fact, you get the feeling Bokosky could rave about him for hours.

“He can shoot it, he can drive it, he’s a good athlete, he’s a great listener, doesn’t have a bad day,” Bokosky said. “Those are simple things but, man, those are things that get it done.”

Wait, there’s more.

“I think he’s refreshing to be around, in that he has this naivety about him. He’s a great competitor. He doesn’t have a bad day. He has great basketball instincts.”

Still more!

“He does some things that are exceptional, and when he does something exceptional – it could be a rebound tip-dunk, and it’s impressive how he does it, but to him it’s like, ‘What’s the big deal?’ … He doesn’t talk about himself. He doesn’t talk about his game. He’s always asking how you’re doing. He’s a great teammate.”

And his team on the hardwood – tied atop a congested SCIAC with La Verne at 5-2 heading into Wednesday’s game at Redlands – isn’t the only one succeeding.

His other team puts basketball, life, everything, really, in perspective.

Haslam grew up without his father, who died of cancer when Cam was very young.

For many years now, Haslam has been involved with Relay for Life, honoring his father, and it was important to him that he continue that in college.

So last week, Haslam started a team. In two days, they had raised $1,000.

“It was wild,” Haslam said, noting he’s looking into working with the organization further, perhaps over the summer. “It was such a cool feeling to be able to do that.”

If you already find yourself rooting for Cam Haslam, you’re not the only one.

Bokosky points to the basketball team’s natural chemistry as a big reason for its success thus far. Part of that is the leadership that’s developed – a lot from junior Seattle Pacific transfer Luke Hamlin – on a team that returned no starters and just two seniors.

Part, too, has to be that the guy scoring in bunches is so likeable.

“(Cam) has it, and all the other guys just gravitate toward him,” Bokosky said. “It sounds easy to do, but very rarely do other guys on the team that play rarely or play behind (someone) enjoy another player’s success. But his personality makes that possible.”

Athenas take charge of SCIAC women’s race

A few weeks ago, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Cal Lutheran appeared headed toward a Jan. 26 showdown with the potential there for both teams to be undefeated.

Chapman spoiled that with a 65-63 win over CLU on Saturday, and the CMS has now fully taken over the driver’s seat with a 61-53 victory over the Regals on Tuesday.

Kris Brachmann had 15 points and CMS turned a 24-20 halftime deficit into a 40-34 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Nothing’s set in stone yet, but the Athenas (13-4, 8-0 SCIAC) are now up two games in the loss column on both Chapman and CLU and have already beaten the Panthers twice this season.

Coe turns IIAC upside down

Declaring separation in the Iowa Conference too early can be dangerous, and that was proven by the Coe men last week.

Central and Dubuque entered the week tied at 3-1 and leading the league in a good amount of statistical categories.

But the 0-4 Kohawks upended them both rather impressively, taking out the Dutch 77-69 on Wednesday and UD 71-58 Saturday.

By the way, it was a rough week for Central, which fell 97-94 at Buena Vista on a Nick Clark 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds left in overtime.

Now three teams in the IIAC are 4-2, two are 3-3 and three are 2-4. That’s parity.

On the women’s side, Loras made quite a statement of its own by knocking off Luther and Wartburg – two teams that have been ranked this season – to improve to 5-1 along with the Norse.

Determined Boxers end streak

The Pacific men hadn’t beaten Lewis and Clark in 17 tries heading into the latest installment of the series Friday.

The Boxers forced three overtimes to snap it.

J.J. Spitler, who had played in just seven games prior to Friday, hit a 3-pointer with six seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 53.

Then DeVon Pouncey’s free throw tied it at 61 with six seconds left in overtime and his shot in the paint drew the teams even at 67 with 42 seconds to go in the second overtime.

Finally, the Boxers got a lead and held on in the third OT, 80-77.

Maybe experience paid off. Pacific lost to Menlo 101-97 in triple overtime earlier this season.