SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Whitman College had the returning SCIAC tournament champions on the ropes all afternoon Saturday but Chapman University rallied in the second half to eke out a 72-67 non-conference victory over the Missionaries in men's basketball action at UC Santa Cruz's Kaiser Permanente Arena.
Rolaun Dunham came off the bench to lead Whitman (2-2) in scoring with 17 points. Taylor Hamasaki paced the Panthers (4-0) with 23 points.
The Missionaries and Chapman traded the lead during the early minutes of Saturday's match-up before a
Christian McDonald three-pointer pushed Whitman in front, 11-9, with 15 minutes remaining. Chapman tied the score on their next possession but the momentum from McDonald's trey sparked a 7-0 run over the next five minutes to lift the Missionaries to an 18-11 lead nearing the midpoint of the first half.
The Panthers -- coming off their Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and a third trip in the past five seasons into the NCAA Division III tournament -- weren't expected to go quietly, and they responded with a spurt to draw within three at 21-18.
Matt Mounier answered Chapman's challenge, however, with a three-pointer which was followed by a
Tochi Oti layup to elevate Whitman to a 26-18 advantage. The lead grew to nine before closing back down to five, 35-30, entering the halftime intermission.
Chapman came out of the break with its best stretch of the game up to that point, out scoring Whitman 11-4 over the first two minutes to forge its first lead, at 41-39, since the 15:22 mark of the opening half.
As evidenced by early-season action so far, though, Whitman is never going to be out of it, and Saturday was no exception. A
Jackson Clough trey cut into a 51-47 deficit, pulling the Missionaries within a point at the halfway point of the period. A Dunham steal and layup lifted Whitman in front a few possessions later, and a pair of Oti free throws eventually shifted momentum squarely onto Whitman's bench with a 54-51 lead.
That momentum was short-lived as a Panthers three-pointer tied the game, and a string of 3-for-4 shooting from the free-throw line over the next minutes allowed Chapman to stretch its lead to 57-54. Whitman continued to battle and wrested back the lead at 59-58 with another Dunham layup.
John Joyce's jumper for Chapman its next time down the floor turned the tables once again, and this time they stayed that way. Hamasaki dropped in a three-pointer to increase the Panther lead to four and, despite an Oti layup that pulled Whitman within two at 65-63, Chapman used one more trey and a 4-for-4 stretch from the foul line to close out the win and disappoint a Whitman squad with an upset on its mind.
Tochi, with 14 points, and
Brock Wade with 10 also reached double-figures in the loss for Whitman. Colin Zavrsnick chimed in with 20 points to help Hamasaki in the Panthers' offensive end of the floor.
The Missionaries finished the game with a 42-35 advantage on the glass, led by
Evan Martin's game-high seven rebounds. The Whitman bench put in a solid effort also, adding more than half the team's scoring with 34 points.
The Santa Cruz trip continues Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. contest against the host Banana Slugs.
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