Chapman Pulls Out Win Over Southwest Baptist

Chapman College’s basketball team is edging ever closer to the spot where Coach Kevin Wilson would like his young squad to be. Closer, but not there yet.

The Panthers pulled out a 68-66 nonconference win Monday night against Southwest Baptist in front of 150 fans at the Hutton Sports Center. But, for a half, they couldn’t have found a bus to get them to that elusive “fundamentally sound” plane Wilson yearns for.

“I think we are gaining,” Wilson said. “We are trying to get them to play fundamental ball. Thank goodness we could rebound in the first half. If not, we would have been in trouble.”

Happily for Chapman, the second half went more smoothly. In fact, the Panther’s shot 71% from the field in the final 20 minutes to bring them to 56.8% on the game--the best in three years. Karl Cato had a season-high 15 rebounds for the Panthers.

“I think we played with more intensity and played better in the first half,” Bearcat Coach Dennis Phillips said. “They did a good job on the offensive rebounds and we let their guards get too many shots.”

Two guards who shot well for Chapman were Mike Kelly, who had eight points, and Wali Jones, who had 13. The pair sparked a Chapman scoring burst at the start of the second half that brought the Panthers from a 38-31 deficit to 52-47 lead with 10:05 remaining.

The lead changed several times from there until the end, but Chapman had the advantage on the shooting of Cato, Mike Brennan and Jones. When Cato fouled out, it was Jones whose sparked the Panthers. His jumper with 2:47 left put Chapman ahead, 64-62. With 38 seconds left, Jones had a steal, was fouled and made one free throw. Jones struck again with 10 seconds left, hitting a short jumper to make it 68-64. Lorenzo McNichols hit a Bearcat basket with eight seconds left.

Chapman is 7-4 and Southwest Baptist is 4-10. Monday’s loss made it 10 in a row for the team from Bolivar, Mo.

SOUTHWEST BAPTIST (66)--Hawkins 10, Noel 3, Doyle 12, McNichols 19, Vermillion 11, Ely 2, Buckley 7, Howard 2.

CHAPMAN (68)--Ross 6, Kelly 8, Clark 4, Jones 13, Marusich 3, Williams 14, Cato 14, Brennan 6.

Halftime--Southwest Baptist, 38-31.