Cal Lutheran Pounds La Verne

Cal Lutheran Coach Ed Anderson sat in the bleachers before Friday night’s game at La Verne wondering how his team would perform in the gym commonly known as “The Tent.”

“Sometimes, it’s tough to play in an environment like this,” said Anderson, as he gazed up at the circus-like structure. “You just hope your team doesn’t perform like a bunch of clowns.”

Anderson shouldn’t have worried. La Verne (0-4) provided the comedy act, committing 30 turnovers as Cal Lutheran (2-1) won a laugher, 91-59.

“We did some good things tonight, but we still need work on our set-up offense,” Anderson said. “We’ll need it down the road against tougher teams.”

That may be true for the future, but the run-and-gun offense the Kingsmen displayed against La Verne was more than adequate.

There was never any question as to the outcome of the game. From the moment Lionel Boyce scored the first of his game-high 16 points, the Kingsmen had a lead they would never relinquish.

Everyone on the Cal Lutheran team scored. Steve Delaveaga had another good night coming off the bench and scored 10 points. Karl Slattum, Darren Ranck, and Dave Jacques all had nine.

The Kingsmen jumped out to an 8-2 lead, but La Verne closed to 8-6. That was the closest the Leopards came for the rest of the night.

Cal Lutheran broke the game open by scoring 16 unanswered points--14 coming as a direct result of a trapping 2-2-1 full-court press that caused seven La Verne turnovers.

“We’ve got to do the same thing against better opponents,” Anderson said. “We’ve got to keep them from getting into their half-court game.”

The Kingsmen led by as many as 20 in the first half, and led by 19 at intermission.

The second half wasn’t much better for La Verne as the Kingsmen built their lead to 33.

Anderson was obviously happy with his team’s win, but realized that the real test will come tonight against Chapman College, which recently won a tournament in Southern Utah.

“We have to be more patient against teams like Chapman and Northridge,” Anderson said. “We won’t be able to play this type of game against Chapman.”

Steve Cotner, the Cal Lutheran team captain, feels the Kingsmen are ready for the next three games against Division II schools.

“We’re starting to pick it up and play better,” Cotner said. “We’re playing better defense and rebounding aggressively.”