Glendale Feasts on Bakersfield, 91-72 : Basketball: Justin Lord scores 20 points to help the Vaqueros improve their WSC record to 3-2 and move within striking distance of conference leaders.

From Glendale’s perspective, Wednesday’s game against Bakersfield was somewhat like a diet for a sumo wrestler--everything to lose with not much room to gain.

For Glendale, 2-2 after two weeks of Western State Conference men’s basketball action, a home loss to a second-division Bakersfield team would have been disastrous; a win would keep the Vaqueros within range of the leaders.

Glendale didn’t exactly rise to the occasion, but it did play well enough to win, 91-72.

“As crappy as this game is, you win, and we did some stuff OK at times,” Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin said. “You can’t afford to have any slippage against anybody you should beat.”

Coming off a 13-point loss to Valley and heading into a tough game against Moorpark on Saturday, Glendale (15-8, 3-2) gave itself breathing room by pulling out to a 50-35 halftime lead.

“I think we attacked their zone rather effectively, for the most part, in the first half,” said Glendale forward Justin Lord, who scored a team-high 20 points.

“They’re a pretty small team. That was a great advantage. I was able to go inside more than usual.”

The 6-foot-6 Lord provided 14 first-half points and took away seven first-half rebounds.

With his team leading, 11-9, early in the game, Lord hit two free throws to begin a 10-point Glendale run. Glendale’s lead seldom dipped below 10 points thereafter.

Glendale guard Bruce Heicke missed practice Tuesday because of illness but nearly recorded a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.

“Of all the guys, I thought he was executing the offense the best,” Beauchemin said of Heicke. “Tony Lopez came off the bench and stuck some shots.”

Lopez scored 17 points for Glendale, and Dave Swanson added 15. Gary Fowler scored 10 points.

Bakersfield (10-12, 1-4) struggled from the field, shooting less than 40%, but guard Stacee Goree led all scorers with 22 points.

Reserve Robert Murphy scored 15 points, and Estavan Johnson scored 10.

Glendale, which frequently has fallen behind early in games, protected its 15-point halftime lead gingerly throughout the second half, never leading by fewer than 10 or more than 20 points.

“We jumped out strong and held in there,” Beauchemin said. “That’s important.”

Bakersfield cut the lead to 12 at 71-59, but Glendale’s Chris Cooke hit a layup, Heicke made a jump shot and Cooke made two free throws to make the score 77-61.

“I thought Chris Cooke played pretty well,” Beauchemin said.

Cooke came off the bench to score eight points and also blocked several shots.