COSTA MESA – The Golden State Athletic Conference season continued for Vanguard men's basketball on Saturday afternoon. The Lions hosted the San Diego Christian Hawks and after a slow start, VU locked in and made quality shots the rest of the game en route to an 86-68 victory. Garrett White's (SR/Post Falls, ID) 29 points led all players, as he went 12-for-21 on the day from the field. Preston Sims (JR/Orange, CA) and Phillip Willis (SR/San Diego, CA) each chipped in 13 points in support of the Vanguard attack. VU improves to 6-4 overall and 2-3 in GSAC play. SDCC falls to 2-5 overall and 1-5 in GSAC action.
What Happened? The Lions shot over 50% in each half for a game total of 55.6%. While VU did not shoot well from downtown, going 4-14, the Blue and Gold had 34 points in the paint and 13 second-chance tallies to pull away from the Hawks. SDCC shot 39% from the floor for the game and made only four of their 20 attempts thrown up from beyond the arc. The Hawks did well from the free throw line though, going 18-for-20.
The opening act of the game did not lead the viewer to assume it would be a near 20-point decision. The Hawks took the opening tip and made a quick dunk to steal the early thunder. San Diego Christian would go up by five points at two stages in the first 10 minutes of the game, as the visitors showed some spunk early on. White and Sims would delete that advantage with a 7-0 run, with a three by Sims with 10:52 to go putting Vanguard ahead for good. The Hawks did not feel defeated at that moment though, as they quickly responded with three points to trail 20-19 with 9:20 to go. But the Lions had shaken off the early nerves and outscored the Hawks 22-13 for the remainder of the half, taking a 42-32 lead into halftime. White tallied 13 points in the first and Sims had 11. Kody Knox came off the bench and showed some hard work off the ball, with three assists, two rebounds, and two points in about seven minutes of action.
Isaac Davis (SR/Valencia, CA) dished out a few assists to open the second and made four free throws to boot. The Hawks did cut the lead to seven twice in the opening five minutes, but the Lion's lead was never in jeopardy. Six points for White and another two for Willis returned the advantage to double figures over the next few possessions. In fact, the two combined for all Vanguard scoring (17 points) from the 14:43 mark of the second half until a dunk for Sims with 5:44 to go in the game, with Davis getting the long airmail assist on the slam.
SDCC did make a late encore with a 10-4 run that took the score to 77-63 with 2:46 remaining. But time was not on the side of the visitors and the Lions outscored the Hawks 9-5 over the final minutes of the game, with VU winning 86-68.
Jackson Larsen (JR/El Cajon, CA) had eight points and Davis had six points with seven assists. Mitchell Prevost (JR/Tuolumne, CA) had five rebounds to lead the squad, with five Lions tied with four.
Why is it Important? This is the third victory in a row over the Hawks and gives VU a 44-27 lead in the all-time series. The win also pulls Vanguard even with Westmont at 2-3 in the GSAC standings.
What was Said? "I'm proud of the way our guys focused up after a long week of finals," said Head Coach Rhett Soliday. "SDCC has been playing well and was coming off a good conference win, along with playing some tough NCAA DI programs. We knew we had to get stops by giving maximum effort and executing well offensively to get it done. I thought our guys did that for the most part."
"Additionally, it is great to see Garrett begin to impose his will again as an offensive threat and I thought that Preston had a major impact on the game today by making simple and aggressive decisions on the ball or away from the action. We still need to find a way to limit our turnovers, but I know our guys will respond to that challenge."
What's Next? The Lions will have a travel day and swing into action at the Cactus Classic in Chandler, Arizona. The team will face Montana State-Northern on Monday at 10:00 a.m.
