Bad Aim Results in Painful Defeat

The pained expression on Mike Salser’s face told a lot about Cal Lutheran’s fortunes with 8 1/2 minutes left in Saturday night’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference basketball game against host Pomona-Pitzer.

As Salser headed to the Kingsmen bench with his fourth foul, a look of fatigue and frustration was there for good reason.

Cal Lutheran had fallen behind by 18 points on its way to a 69-48 defeat that ended a winning streak at five games and left the Kingsmen two games behind first-place Pomona-Pitzer with five games left in the regular season.

A Cal Lutheran victory would have created a tie for first, but the Kingsmen (14-6, 6-3 in conference play) shot poorly for the second time this season against the Sagehens.

They made only 17 of 56 shots after hitting 22 of 59 in a 64-58 loss on Jan. 5.

“We missed some shots that we should have made and that led to some frustration,” Cal Lutheran Coach Rich Rider said. “We had some real good looks at the basket in the first half, but they just weren’t falling and that caused a little bit of panic. Instead of just playing our game, we tried to do everything perfect every time we had the ball.”

The Kingsmen trailed, 30-20, at halftime and things got worse to start the second half. Pomona-Pitzer went on a 13-2 run to take a 43-22 lead with 15:20 left to play.

Pomona-Pitzer (15-5, 8-1), which made 22 of 49 shots, was six of 10 during that stretch while Cal Lutheran committed three turnovers and shot one of 10.

The Kingsmen later went on a 12-5 run to cut their deficit to 57-44 with 4:35 remaining, but they never got closer than 15 after that.

“We’re just not shooting the ball well and a lot of that has to do with confidence,” Rider said. “We’re just not confident right now.”

Brian Capella scored 13 points for Cal Lutheran and Christian Dunbar added 10, but no one else scored more than seven. Andy Saint was scoreless after entering the game with an 11.9 average.

Brett Lange led Pomona-Pitzer with 15 points and Travis Greer had 13 points and eight rebounds.

“They just pretty much outplayed us,” Capella said. “They were definitely the better team tonight.”

Cal Lutheran trailed, 30-20, at halftime after being down by 13.

The Kingsmen made only seven of 25 shots and had 10 turnovers.

The Sagehens weren’t much better, hitting only eight of 24 shots, but they feasted at the foul line, making 13 of 16.