Cal Lutheran Plods to Tough 90-87 Win Over Fresno Pacific

Cal Lutheran, led by Steve deLaveaga’s 32 points, beat Golden State Athletic Conference rival Fresno Pacific, 90-87, at home Saturday night.

Even though the win boosted the Kingsmen’s conference record to 2-0 and their overall mark to 7-9, respectable by CLU standards, Coach Larry Lopez was anything but pleased afterward.

The first-year coach gathered his team in the locker room moments after the game ended, and for 25 minutes chewed out his players. Said Lopez: “The only positive thing that happened tonight was that we won,” and, “We made way too many mistakes--we didn’t put them away when we had the chance.”

After the coach settled down, he admitted that James Faulk (17 points), Michael Demeter (17 points) and DeLaveaga really did play well. But DeLaveaga disagreed.

“He was right to chew us out,” he said. “We didn’t play well. It’s not OK for us to just win. We have to play well.

“Shooting is just one part of the game. I scored a lot tonight, but I turned the ball over way too many times.”

He was not alone. The game was a strange mix of great plays interspersed with lenghty stretches of missed shots and free throws, bumbled passes, blown defensive assignments and numerous fouls.

Even though Fresno Pacific is one of the few teams the Kingsmen match up with sizewise, the Sunbirds nonetheless confused CLU on offense throughout the first half. Later, it was the Kingsmen defense that looked baffled.

After falling behind, 68-59, midway through the second half, Fresno Pacific scored easy baskets down the stretch, closing CLU’s lead to 86-83 with 2:18 left. But Cal Lutheran kept pace, led by DeLaveaga, who made an assortment of drives, leaning jump shots and long bombs.

The 6-4 sophomore guard hit two key baskets in the final two minutes to put the Kingsmen ahead, 90-83, with just more than a minute left.

The Sunbirds came back to score four unanswered points but were unable to overtake CLU.