POINT LOMA NAZARENE ROLLS TO 21ST WIN IN A ROW
Point Loma Nazarene guard Tobin Karlberg froze his Hawaii Hilo counterpart Carlos Ramsey Jr. with a deft hesitation dribble that left Ramsey skidding backwards and falling to the floor where he could only look up as Karlberg drained a step-back 3pointer.
That shot highlighted an 8-0 first half run that launched the PLNU Sea Lions to a comfortable 87-66 victory at Golden Gymnasium.
Senior forward and national Division II Player of the year candidate Kaden Anderson finished with a gamehigh 31 points and 11 rebounds, Brian Goracke scored 17 points, Karlberg added 13, Jake Lifgren scored 12 and Luke Haupt (St. Augustine) contributed 10 points with eight rebounds and six assists as the Sea Lions (25-3, 20-0 PacWest) closed the regular season on a 21-game winning streak.
“We have a bunch of unselfish guys who don’t care who gets the credit and just want to go out and play good ball,” said Anderson, who shot 11 of 19 from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range. “It’s just everyone fitting in and doing what it takes to win games. It’s a fun team to play with. We’ve been on a roll.”
Coach Matt Logie’s team is the first in PacWest history to go 20-0 in conference play, has won 31 straight conference games overall and will enter next weekend’s PacWest tournament looking like the kind of team that could do some serious damage in next month’s NCAA Division II tournament.
The Sea Lions, who entered Thursday’s action ranked sixth in the NABC Coaches poll, swept the season series with Hawaii Hilo (17-8, 13-7) and haven’t tasted defeat since a 91-89 loss to Western Washington on Nov. 26.
While the team’s five seniors (Anderson, Karlberg, Kyle Colvin, Wes Slajchert and Shamrock Campbell) played their final regularseason home game, the Sea Lions may host the NCAA Division II West Regionals scheduled for March 10-13.
In the latest NCAA rankings released Wednesday, PLNU was ranked first in the west, just ahead of 22-3 Cal State San Bernardino of the CCAA.
The Sea Lions have a firstround bye in next week’s PacWest conference tournament in Honolulu and will play a semifinal game on Friday.
Sites and brackets for the NCAA regionals will be announced March 5.
Winning the PacWest tournament and hosting the regional round was the path the Sea Lions took en route to advancing all the way to the national championship game in 2019, when they fell to Northwest Missouri State 6458.
This season’s team has looked similarly dominant to the one led by Division II Player of the Year Daulton Hommes in 2018-19 and has a senior in Anderson who played a role in that team’s run as a freshman reserve averaging around nine minutes per game.
Anderson, a two-time PacWest Player of the Year, is the only Sea Lion left from that national runner-up team and has grown into the kind of inside/outside scorer who causes opponents fits.
He’s surrounded by an experienced and talented group that can pass, shoot, rebound and defend as well as any team in the nation.