Cal Lutheran Holds On to Beat Cal Poly

Steve deLaveaga scored 31 points, 24 in the second half, to lead Cal Lutheran to a 96-95 win over Cal Poly Pomona on Tuesday night.

DeLaveaga, who had been in a shooting slump in the Kingsmen’s first five games, scored 13 points in a three-minute stretch that began midway in the second half, giving CLU a 16-point lead with six minutes left in the game.

Still, Cal Lutheran’s lead crumbled in the game’s final three minutes. Cal Poly’s Bill Dobbs warmed up from three-point range, and when the 6-1 guard hit from 22 feet with 1:04 remaining, the CLU lead was 91-88.

In the final 54 seconds, CLU guard Jeff Logsdon came off the bench to make 5 of 6 free throws to seal the Kingsmen’s third win in six games.

“I was cold,” Logsdon said. “I’ve shot an awful lot of free throws at that rim in practice. There was no reason to miss now.”

Logsdon’s five free throws were his only points.

“This is our first win against a Division II school, maybe in our history,” said Cal Lutheran Coach Larry Lopez. “Certainly, it’s the first in the three years I’ve been here. We played so well until the last three minutes.

“It was nice to see DeLaveaga get out of his shooting slump.”

The 6-4 sophomore guard, who had made just 25% of his shots going into this game, made 11 of 14 field-goal attempts and 7 of 7 from the free-throw line. “My shooting had become a mental thing,” DeLaveaga said. “I didn’t know how to deal with it, but this was a big win for us.”

Lionel Boyce added 21 points and 10 rebounds against the taller Broncos.

Dobbs led Pomona with 18 points and center Zenon M added 14. The loss dropped the Broncos to 4-2.