Chapman Men Regroup With 90-78 Victory

The four-game skid may have ended Friday, but it was Saturday’s victory that got the Chapman men’s basketball team back on track.

Fresh off a 49-point pounding of Cal Maritime, the Panthers faced UC San Diego, the kind of solid team that has been giving them fits, and won, 90-78, in front of 500 at Hutton Center.

“We had been in the little funk for a while,” senior center Greg Vanden Ordel said. “I knew we needed a big game to turn it around.”

Vanden Ordel--and several other Panthers--stepped forward at the right times to lift the Panthers (8-6). Vanden Ordel, 6 feet 9, had 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots and provided the intensity necessary to hold off UCSD (7-9).

Toby Curto scored 26 points, making 10 of 16 shots, including four of five three-pointers and Jim Falletta scored 23 points.

San Diego, which started three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior, was missing two players because of injury. Even so, the Tritons put up a battle.

They led, 18-8, with 13 minutes 41 seconds left in the first half, mostly on the strength of inside moves by 6-7 junior center Matt Aune. Aune scored 14 in the first half and finished with 33.

Chapman rallied to tie the score, 25-25, on a tip-in by Vanden Ordel with 8:36 left and led, 46-40, at the half.

San Diego cut the deficit to one, 53-52, with 14:57 left to play, but Chapman went on a 13-4 run that was finished by another Vanden Ordel tip. Chapman led, 66-56, with 10:56 left and by at least eight the rest of the way.

Adam Libby, a freshman from Woodbridge High, and Mike Wall each scored 14 points and Mike Thimgan, a freshman from Esperanza High, scored eight points for UCSD.

Umahl Anderson scored nine and Todd Canavan and Pete Sverkos each had seven for the Panthers.