Men’s basketball cruised to its seventh consecutive victory with a win against conference rival and nationally ranked Cal Baptist Lancers on Jan. 31. Four players scored in double figures as the team took home a 100-87 victory over Cal Baptist on Seasider blackout night, where the crowd wore black shirts.“I was really proud of our guys and the way they played,” said men’s basketball Head Coach Ken Wagner. “We came out strong and showed discipline throughout the entire game.”Player Scott Friel, a senior in EXS from Utah, had a perfect shooting game, sinking seven of seven shots from the field and six for six from the free throw line to lead the team with 20 points.Daniel Berger and Pablo Coro followed Friel’s performance, adding 19 points apiece, and Jordan Stone had several slam dunks down the stretch to finish with 18 points.As a team, BYU-Hawaii finished shooting a blistering 63.6 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from behind the arc. The Seasiders also recorded a season high of nine blocks, with four by Ian Harward. The Seasiders outscored the Lancers by 20 in the paint.“It was a real team effort these last two games,” said Robbie Mitchell, a senior player from Washington. “Everyone really stepped up and played really well. It is good to see the team meshing so well.”BYUH led the game from start to finish, winning the tip-off and scoring the first five points of the game on a layup from Friel and a 3-pointer from Coro. After a Cal Baptist layup, Berger scored four in a row to spark an 8-1 run, giving BYUH the double digit lead at 13-3 with a time of 16:17 left in the half.“Muy bueno, Pablo,” said Ryan Belliston, a senior studying business from Ohio. “Pablo has been shooting the lights out from the three and Ian Howard makes the paint a restricted air space for the opposition.”The Lancers cut back within single digits, but a pair of free throws by Coro and a layup by Friel extended the lead back to 12 with 14 minutes remaining in the opening period.A layup by Tyler Tuliau started a 12-point Seasider run that featured back-to-back three-pointers from Justin Yamzon and Luke Aston, as well as a jump shot from Cory Lange to build a 25-point lead at 41-16 with 8:29 on the clock before halftime.Cal Baptist did not go away with Baptist player, Ryan Berg, beating the halftime buzzer cutting the lead to 53-43 going into the locker room.The game remained close with both teams trading points, but the Seasiders were able to maintain their lead going into the final five minutes in at 84-77.With 4:10 remaining, Friel sank four consecutive free throws to increase the lead to 11. BYUH’s lead would grow to more than 15 points before the final buzzer.“The blackout was clutch,” said Harland Reist, a senior from Pennsylvania studying EXS. “Intimidation and energy from the blackout was at an all time high. We came out in the first half really hot and the crowd was so excited. It was good to be a part of that.”Uploaded Feb. 5, 2015
Writer: Trenton McCullough
