Cal Maritime takes perfect December record on the road to West Coast Baptist
GAME UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30 (6:55 P.M.)
Shortly after Cal Maritime's December 30 game preview at West Coast Baptist was published, the Eagles were forced to cancel this non-conference matchup. This means that the Keelhaulers will now ends its finals/holiday break on Tuesday, January 4 at UC Santa Cruz (7 p.m.).
Game 10
Cal Maritime Keelhaulers (4-5)
at
West Coast Baptist Eagles
Thursday, Dec. 30 – 2 p.m.
Lancaster, Calif.
VALLEJO, Calif. – Off since December 14 when it collected a victory against Holy Names in the final home event of 2021, Cal Maritime will end a 16-day holiday hiatus on Thursday when it heads to Lancaster, California, to face West Coast Baptist in the first of a brief two-game road swing that leads into the team's Cal Pac opener on January 8 at Simpson.
Once the Keelhaulers return home from Southern California, the final tune-up before league play commences will take place on Tuesday at UC Santa Cruz.
Not only will men's basketball head south with an undefeated record in the month of December, the team will look to collect its fourth straight victory against a West Coast Baptist squad that was originally scheduled as the Keelhaulers' season-opening opponent at the Frank Dye Classic — the program's home, and only tournament for the 2021-22 season.
Slated to face one another on Oct. 29, the Eagles were forced to cancel their season opener against the Keelhaulers. This time, it is Cal Maritime's turn to hit the road and return to the court in WCB's final home event of the calendar year.
A victory will give the Keelhaulers their first on the road this season; they enjoyed a home-heavy non-conference slate since only two contests took place on the road so far this season.
Junior guard Eric Norton and sophomore forward Amil Fields lead the team in scoring at 15.3 and 13.4 points per game, respectively, and earned the Cal Pac Conference's first two Men's Basketball Player of the Week awards.
Norton earned his honor after scoring 20 of his 22 points in the second half against Bushnell, a game that saw Cal Maritime erase an 11-point deficit and lead by as many as nine before finishing with a season-high 96 points in its seven-point victory against the Beacons.
Fields earned the league's inaugural Player of the Week award for the season one week before Norton received his by scoring a game-high 22 points by nailing four shots from three, combined with his 10 of 12 shooting at the free throw line. Fields' five defensive rebounds were also a team-high and one-fifth of the Keelhaulers' overall total when Cal Maritime hosted two-time Cal Pac champions Antelope Valley in the first game that took place in the month of December.