Men’s basketball returns home following back-to-back wins in Arizona

VALLEJO, Calif. – In Friday night's Cal Pac game at Park Gilbert, a quartet of double-digit scorers lifted Cal Maritime to a 90-76 victory, an impressive feat since the Keelhaulers earned this result in the second game played in as many days during the team's three-game, four-day road trip around Arizona-based Cal Pac Conference opposition. 

Miles Pennington scored 22 points that night, Shawn Kelly recorded 21, Lunden Taylor and Braxton Adderly ended their evening with 14 and 10 points, respectively, and the Keelhaulers dominated the glass to keep the host Buccaneers at bay from the opening tip until the final buzzer.

Led by Pennington and Justice Coles' eight, CSUM collected 44 total boards compared to Park's 28, finished with 24 on defensive glass compared to the Buccaneers' 19, and finished with a 20-9 margin on the offensive glass; a glowing sign of the team's heart and grittiness that night since those offensive rebounds led to 20 second chance points.

Even though the Keelhaulers' enjoyed a day off on Saturday, Friday night's performance carried over to the court throughout Sunday afternoon's game at Embry-Riddle since they scored 10 of the game's first 12 points, led by eight at halftime, and led from start to finish in a game they won, 75-72.

Up by six with 52 seconds left to play at the ERAU Activity Center, a pair of Embry-Riddle free throws, followed by a tip-in on its next possession, chopped Cal Maritime's lead in half with 32 seconds on the scoreboard.

Adderly's clutch free throws from that point on until the horn sounded, combined with an addition pressure-packed free throw from Everett Perrot and key stops on defense prevented the Eagles from pulling closer than three within the final minute of the game.

Even though men's basketball opened its three-game, four-day Arizona road trip with a 75-67 loss in last Thursday's league game, the way everyone on the team rebounded to win out the rest of the trip created momentum the team will bring back to Vallejo and carry with them when CSUM travels to La Sierra on Thursday, and Antelope Valley on Saturday — the final two games of this grueling test since the Keelhaulers were forced to compete on the road the last two weeks due to the setup an execution of U.S. Coast Guard exams.

Cal Maritime will head to Southern California later this week with an overall record of 5-9 and a 5-3 mark against Cal Pac opponents.