Keelhaulers split season series against Antelope Valley

LANCASTER, Calif. – Earlier this season, Antelope Valley traveled to Vallejo for a designated non-conference game, one the Keelhaulers won by 10 points, which kick-started their attention-grabbing eight-game win streak.

When it was Cal Maritime's turn to travel and face the Pioneers, it trailed by three at halftime until it took a 50-40 lead five minutes into the second half by scoring 15 unanswered.

The Pioneers chipped away at the Keelhaulers' lead and answered that run with an 8-3 mini-run of its own, to set up a tense final minute of play.

With Antelope Valley up by two and inbounding the ball on Cal Maritime's baseline with 15 seconds left to play, Miles Pennington nearly stole that incoming pass. Even though he possessed the ball, his momentum carried him out of bounds since he gained possession milliseconds before his feet touched the floor.

Trailing by three entering the final seconds of the night, Cal Maritime created an opportunity to pull even and force overtime with one second remaining but saw its game-tying shot hit the front of the rim before falling to the court.

The ultimate difference in this matchup was a hat trick of heat-check threes from the Pioneers' Hassan Bolden, which gave his team a late lead for good in a game Antelope Valley won, 77-74, to secure a split of the season's series.

With Monday's result, Cal Maritime now holds a 12-9 overall and 7-4 Cal Pac record with Antelope Valley ending the regular season at 17-13 and 9-4.

Cetrick Yeanay and Eric Norton led a quintet of double-digit scorers with 14 apiece, Pennington finished with 12, Trey Porter added another 11, Divine Nwoko ended his evening with 10 and was one of two Keelhaulers to nab a team-high seven rebounds. Even through Amil Fields finished one point shy of joining this group, he collected seven boards as well.

The Keelhaulers will now shift their attention to the Cal Pac's website and Twitter feed since conference officials will announce the complete field for this year's Men's Basketball Championship Tuesday afternoon at 12 p.m.

Entering the final night of the regular season, Simpson, Saint Katherine and Benedictine-Mesa clinched three of six available spots at next week's Cal Pac Men's Basketball tournament by finishing first atop the North, South and Arizona Divisions, respectively.

Among a handful of teams battling for one of the three remaining at-large berths were Cal Maritime and Antelope Valley.

Even though none of the at-large teams will officially know their postseason fate until tomorrow's announcement, Antelope Valley (9-4/.692) and Cal Maritime (7-4/.636) hold the two best conference records (and win percentages) outside the three teams that automatically qualified by finishing atop their respective divisions.

Other teams looking to strengthen their argument for postseason play, entering Monday night's slate of games, all suffered losses when Simpson topped UC Merced, Westcliff fell to Saint Katherine and La Sierra dropped its rivalry home game to Pacific Union.