On Wednesday in Eagle Rock, the University of Redlands men's basketball team maintained its unblemished Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) record by topping the Tigers of Occidental College in an important 96-94 victory.
After the Bulldogs fell behind early in the contest, senior forward Josiah Brensdal (Kent, WA) scored a layup with 15:44 remaining in the first half to give Redlands its first lead of the game at 7-6.
The teams exchanged leads over the next several minutes, but a well-balanced attack by the Bulldogs that included baskets from eight different players allowed them to go up by a score of 31-27 with just over six minutes to go in the first half. During this stretch, junior forward Alex Rudd (St. Louis, MO) knocked down two of his four long balls on the night.
Occidental cut the lead to one at 33-32, but junior guard Matt Calhoun(Clackamas, OR) found his way into the lane and finished with an emphatic dunk to push the Bulldogs back up by three points.
After knocking down 52.9% of its shots during the first half, the Maroon and Gray held a 42-38 halftime advantage.
The Tigers started the second stanza on a 13-7 run and took a 51-49 lead after just four minutes.
Responding to the Occidental offensive spurt, senior guard Brian Kuklok(Poway, CA) sank back-to-back buckets in a 20-second span. Moments later, Rudd drained a three-pointer to extend the advantage in a tight contest to 58-53 at the 14-minute mark.
The teams again traded punches on either end of the court, exchanging buckets and forcing more than 20 second-half turnovers between them. But senior guard Tristan Kirk (Redlands, CA) and junior guard Ricky Peetz(Redlands, CA) scored consecutive layups to help the Bulldogs garner their largest lead of the game at 80-72 with 6:43 to go.
Not going down without a fight, however, Occidental's Eric Leider led the comeback for the Tigers when he cut the deficit to just two points with one of his seven three-pointers with 5:32 left on the clock.
Redlands' Peetz answered by draining a shot from downtown, which initiated a 7-2 run that brought the lead back to seven.
Once again though, the Tigers kept it close and made it a one-possession game with just over two minutes left.
Down the stretch, the Bulldogs needed to come up big once again, and Peetz delivered by hitting his fourth shot of the game from beyond the arc, resulting in a 94-89 advantage at the two-minute mark.
Following another important three from Leider, the Tigers were forced to foul and sent Kuklok to the line in the final minute of the contest. He converted two of his four chances to keep the Tigers at bay.
A final three-point heave by Occidental fell short as time expired, sealing the critical conference win for Redlands.
On the night, the Bulldogs shot 54.7% overall, which included a 45% effort from long range. They held the rebounding advantage by a 41-36 margin over the Tigers.
Rudd led the way for the Maroon and Gray, coming off the bench to shoot 6-for-10 for a total of 16 points, including four baskets from three-point range. Peetz also drained four from downtown as he finished with 15 points for the game.
Redlands' starting lineup saw four players finish in double figures, with both Kirk and Kuklok going for 14 apiece. Kirk, who just missed out on a triple-double, also dished out 10 assists and grabbed eight rebounds on top of tallying four steals and a team-high two blocks. Additionally, Calhoun finished with 13 points, while Brensdal added a double-double with 13 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Redlands (4-2, 3-0 SCIAC) returns to action on Friday when it takes on west-region rival UC Santa Cruz in the 65th annual Lee Fulmer Memorial Tournament at approximately 7 p.m. in Currier Gym.