SCC Wins to Set Up Biola Date : Mansfield Scores 27 to Lift Vanguards Past Christian Heritage

Jim Mansfield came off the bench to score a career-high 27 points to lead Southern California College to a 118-104 victory over Christian Heritage in the West Regional semifinals of the National Christian College Athletic Assn. tournament Thursday at the Vanguards’ gym.

The victory, SCC’s fourth this season over the Hawks, advanced the Vanguards to Saturday’s regional final at Biola. The SCC-Biola winner will go to the NCCAA national tournament next week at Chattanooga, Tenn.

Mansfield, a 6-2 junior from El Dorado High and Fullerton College, made 11 of his 12 field goal attempts, including all four of his three-point shot tries. His previous high was 25 points earlier this season against Hawaii Loa.

“I haven’t had that kind of a game since high school, when I once shot seven-for-seven in a game,” Mansfield said. “I just felt really good out there, and once I started hitting them, they all seemed to go in for me.”

“This is the best I’ve seen Jimmy play,” Vanguard coach Bill Reynolds said. “Not only did he score well for us tonight, he gave us very good off-the-ball defense.”

Christian Heritage (14-15), which was seeded third in the region behind top seed Biola and SCC, used its inside game to build a 46-39 lead with five minutes left in the half. However, the Vanguards (19-14) came back to take a 59-55 halftime lead.

Center Dave Kirksey, a 6-8 transfer student from Cypress College, made 6 of 7 field goal attempts en route to scoring 21 of his 30 points in the first half. Kirksey, who also grabbed eight rebounds, finished the game making 11 of his 14 field goal tries.

“Kirksey played just an average game tonight,” Christian Heritage coach Jim Huckaby said. “We had two-thirds of our guys playing flat. I don’t know where our concentration went tonight, but we’re fortunate to have scored 104 points the way we played.”

The Vanguards used their speed and pressing defense to score 11 unanswered points in the first three minutes of the second half to take a 70-55 lead. Christian Heritage reduced the SCC lead to 12 with 15 minutes left before SCC outscored Heritage, 10-3, to increase its lead to 84-65 with 13 minutes remaining.