CLU Clings to Playoff Hopes After Loss to La Verne

It’s wait-and-see time for the Cal Lutheran men’s basketball team.

The Kingsmen could have guaranteed themselves an automatic entry into the NCAA Division III tournament with a victory over La Verne in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff game Saturday night at Occidental.

But after losing, 83-79, Cal Lutheran will need help from the Division III selection committee to get into the 48-team playoffs, which begin Thursday.

The pairings will be announced today.

“I still think we’ll make it,” Cal Lutheran Coach Mike Dunlap said. “I don’t see how they can keep us out. (A record of 20-6) should get you in, but stranger things have happened. . . . I didn’t want to have to count on anyone else getting us in, but now we have to.”

Cal Lutheran, which had tied La Verne for the SCIAC title with a 12-2 conference record, led, 62-58, with 6 minutes 22 seconds to play after a three-point play by Rupert Sapwell.

La Verne countered with a 10-2 run after a timeout to take a 68-64 lead with 3:17 left. Aaron Courseault (25 points) started the run with a three-point shot and reserve Carlo Williams capped it by scoring seven consecutive points.

Williams, a 6-foot-9 senior forward, scored 12 points, 11 in the second half.

A short jump shot by Damon Ridley (25 points) cut Cal Lutheran’s deficit to two points with 2:44 remaining, but the Kingsmen did not draw closer than four points after that. The key play came after Ridley’s basket when La Verne’s Joe Gonzalez (14 points) hit a three-point shot after Ridley went for a steal and missed.

“We were playing against the game plan in some respects,” Dunlap said. “We got a little bit impatient on offense. We stopped working the ball inside, and we got impatient defensively as well. We tried to force some things when we shouldn’t have.”

A meager five free throws in the second half was indicative of Cal Lutheran’s ineffectiveness in working the ball inside. The Kingsmen made four of their attempts, but that paled in comparison to La Verne, which hit 13 of 19 in the second half, 11 of 13 in the last five minutes.

Matt Hatten scored 21 points for La Verne, which shot 60% (30 of 50) from the field. Sapwell and Dave Ulloa (five steals) each had 12 points for Cal Lutheran, and Paul Tapp and Kelly Crosby each added nine.