Kingsmen Show La Verne That It’s a New Year, 87-73 : College basketball: Cal Lutheran reverses the outcome of two critical losses to Leopards last season.

For Cal Lutheran’s Rupert Sapwell, Wednesday night’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference basketball game against La Verne was a chance for the Kingsmen to get some redemption.

To Cal Lutheran Coach Mike Dunlap, it was simply one of 14 SCIAC games the Kingsmen will play this season.

Either way, Cal Lutheran won, 87-73, to stay tied for first place in the SCIAC with Pomona-Pitzer, a 94-90 winner over Redlands.

“It’s always great to beat La Verne,” Sapwell said. “Last year, they were kind of our voodoo team, so to speak. They knocked us out of the playoffs, so we had all summer to dwell on it and get ready for this.”

La Verne (8-10, 4-3 in conference play) tied Cal Lutheran (17-1, 6-1) for the SCIAC title last season, but defeated the Kingsmen in a playoff game to determine the conference’s automatic entry in the NCAA Division III playoffs before knocking them off again in the second round of postseason play.

“We’ve held a grudge for a long time,” Sapwell said. “So this is a really nice win for us. . . . We were more pumped up for this game than any other game this season.”

Sapwell played a major role in Cal Lutheran’s victory; he scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds to go along with five blocked shots.

Working inside most of the game, Sapwell made nine of 12 shots, although his free-throw shooting (seven of 13) left something to be desired.

“We didn’t plan to go inside that much,” Dunlap said. “But when when we found out we could score in there, when we discovered a soft spot, we definitely started getting the ball inside, either by the pass or the dribble.”

Paul LaMott, a 6-foot-6 junior transfer from Irvine Valley College, also had a big night inside for Cal Lutheran, scoring 14 points and hitting all six of his field goal attempts.

After trailing, 36-28, at halftime, La Verne narrowed its deficit to 50-44 with 13 minutes left, but the Kingsmen did not allow the Leopards to draw any closer.

Cal Lutheran extended its lead to 68-56 with 5:27 left and La Verne never came closer than eight points the rest of the way.

The Kingsmen gave the Leopards plenty of chances with some sloppy ball handling and several missed free throws, but they recovered in time to score points on their final five possessions to win going away.

“I didn’t use revenge to motivate the guys at all,” Dunlap said when asked about last year’s losses. “Sometimes that can be disastrous. If it means to much to you, you tend to play tight. I just wanted the guys to go out there and play hard.”

Damon Ridley added 15 points for Cal Lutheran, Derrick Clark had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Paul Tapp scored 14 points.

Aaron Courseault finished with 29 points for La Verne after being held to five points in the first half.

Courseault finished with 10-for-25 shooting from the field after hitting only two of 10 shots before intermission.