The Master’s Foiled by Claremont, 85-74

Former Thousand Oaks High guard Chris Dibble came off the bench to score 12 points in the second half to lead Claremont to an 85-74 win over The Master’s College Friday night in a first-round game of the four-team Claremont-Mudd Tournament.

Cal Lutheran, playing its season opener, lost to Cal State San Bernardino, 87-74.

“That was my first college game ever,” said Dibble, who scored 15 points in the game. “It was a nice way to start things off.”

The Master’s College built a 34-32 halftime lead behind the play of Virgil Harraway, who scored 16 points in the game for the Mustangs, many of them from long range.

The second half was a different story.

“They came out the second half and played a little harder,” said Mustangs’ Coach Randy Sten. “You don’t win ball games giving up 53 points in the second half.”

Cal Lutheran also suffered second-half woes.

The Kingsmen were down 39-33 at the half as San Bernardino guard Reid Burns scored 11 of his game-high 19 points.

“We played them tough, but we played their game,” said Cal Lutheran Coach Ed Anderson, whose team shot 35% and committed 21 turnovers. “We weren’t running our offense. We’re going to work on sustaining it.”

Burns also helped lead the San Bernardino second-half surge that put the Coyotes up 76-46 with 7:30 left in the game.

Cal Lutheran came back behind freshman guard Steve Delaveaga, who came off the bench to score 18 points. But the closest the Kingsmen could get was within nine.

“I got to see a lot of players tonight,” Anderson said. “We scrapped at the end. It was good to see our young players do well. But our initial lineup didn’t play very well.

“I think we had the first-game jitters.”

The Master’s and Cal Lutheran will play for third place tonight at 6 p.m. Claremont and San Bernardino will meet for the championship at 8 p.m.