LA VERNE, Calif. - It was a tale of two games for the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen in when they visited La Verne Saturday evening. Lasting the first 32 minutes of the evening, CLU trailed the host Leopards by 15 points; the final eight minutes saw the Kingsmen catch fire and mount a furious 20-7 run to pull within two with only 19 seconds remaining in the game.

After Leopard Austin Napolitano made of two free throws to extend La Verne's lead to three, a three-point shot by Greg Grimm just could not find the bottom of the basket as the Leopards escaped with 61-58 win over CLU

Box score: CLU 58, ULV 61 - F

Grimm was one of three Kingsmen who finished in double figures; in addition to his 21 points, teammates Jayvaughn Nettles and Aaron Van Klaveren finished with 12 and 11 points respectively.

Trailing by six points at the half, CLU went on an 11-6 run in the first 4:15 of the second half to pull within only one point.

As quickly as the Kingsmen whittled away at La Verne's lead, the Leopards battled back and responded with a 15-3 run of their own to build a 13-point lead over CLU entering the final nine minutes of the game.

Having needed to battle back at the start of the half to give their team an opportunity to leave Frantz Athletic Court with a win, the Kingsmen quickly regained their poise, and mounted another comeback effort.

With the Leopard lead reaching a peak at 15 points, CLU quickly stole the game's momentum and outscored La Verne 20-7 to trail by only two points entering the final twenty seconds of the game.

During that Kingsman scoring blitzkrieg, the quartet of Van Klaveren (eight points), Nettles, (six points), Grimm (four points), and Brian Holland (two points) knocked the host Leopards on their heels as the partisan crowd saw a once-intimidating 15 point lead rapidly shrink to a meager two points in no time.

After Napolitano could only connect on the front-end of a double-bonus situation, CLU raced down the floor and set up, what they hoped to be, that one play which would force overtime and complete the Kingsman come-from-behind effort.

Unfortunately for Cal Lutheran, that last-second three-point shot would not come to fruition as La Verne barely hung on to win the game by only three points.

Cal Lutheran will return to the court this Wednesday evening when they travel to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.