Chapman Bounces Back to Beat UC Santa Cruz

Chapman, taking an opportunity to help itself, defeated UC Santa Cruz, 95-68, in a men’s basketball game Friday night at the Hutton Center.

Tuesday, the Panthers absorbed an 18-point beating by UC San Diego and Coach Mike Bokosky was concerned that the defense was a step slow, a fatal mistake against one of the better NCAA Division III teams in the West.

Santa Cruz (3-12) doesn’t have the same credentials, but Bokosky said that wasn’t an issue.

“We were mainly concerned about ourselves tonight,” he said. “We wanted to re-establish our effort, which we lacked against San Diego.”

Bokosky used nearly his entire roster--all but two of the 15-man team got into the game in the first half--and the Panthers (9-5) took a 10-3 lead in the first three minutes.

Chapman led by as many as 17 points and settled for a 15-point halftime lead.

The Banana Slugs had bigger inside players, such as 6-foot-8 John Wooley, 6-7 David Goldberg and 6-5 Jason Leiner, but the quicker Panthers were able to control the tempo.

Early in the second half, however, Chapman bogged down. The Panthers’ pressure defense was giving up too many easy baskets and Santa Cruz cut the lead to eight points, 62-54, with 11 minutes 29 seconds left.

But Chapman’s Stefan Mumaw scored five consecutive points to spark a 12-2 run that put the game out of reach.

Mumaw and Aaron Cornell each scored 14 points, leading five Panthers in double figures. Greg Reynolds scored 13, Anthony Gonzales 12 and Adam Dzierzynski 11. Gonzales and Cornell each made four three-pointers and Reynolds made three.

The Panthers made 11 of 24 three-pointers (45.8%) and shot 54.5% from the field (36 for 66).