Men’s basketball: Lions own boards, win second straight

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - The Vanguard University men’s basketball team saw for

itself the results from playing 40 minutes of high-quality basketball in

Monday night’s 65-58 nonconference win over Idaho’s Lewis-Clark State

College.

“We’ve had games this year where we would play one good half and one

bad half,” Lions Coach Stephen French said. “This was our first game with

two well-played halves and hopefully our team will feed off of this after

the break.”

The win gives the Lions (3-5) a modest two-game winning streak, while

the Warriors, ranked No. 11 in the NAIA Division II polls, drops to 7-6.

Kemmy Burgess led the Lions with 20 points, while Dennis Keene chipped

in with 15 points and seven rebounds.

According to French, controlling the rebounds was priority No. 1 for

the Lions and the players responded, outrebounding the Warriors, 40-24.

“They are bigger than we are so we had everyone working hard on the

glass,” French said.

Leading the rebounding barrage was Ian Boys, who pulled down 12 to go

along with his 12 points.

A close game throughout the first half, the Lions used a 12-2 run

midway through the second half to pull away from the Warriors. Burgess

had six of those 12 points for Vanguard.

“He’s a coach’s dream player,” French said. “A coach can’t teach the

desire to have the ball and hit the big shot. He thrives in those

situations.”

NONCONFERENCE

Vanguard University 65, Lewis-Clark 58

Lewis-Clark - Price 8, Jeppensen 13, Bender 11, Way 10, Menelly 2,

Barney 8, Wilson 4, Divranos 2.

3 pt. goals - Price 2, Jeppensen 1.

Fouled out - Price.

Vanguard - Keane 15, Curtis 5, Burgess 20, Boys 12, Candelaria 3,

Cablay 6, Beeler 4.

3 pt. goals - Burgess 3, Keane 2, Curtis 1.

Fouled out - None.

Halftime - Vanguard, 30-28.