by Amanda Egan
Staff Writer
Men’s basketball opened up its pre-season with a key win over La Sierra University and two well-fought losses to Linfield College and Cal Poly Pomona.
“I am satisfied with our play so far,” said head coach Terry Boesel.
ULV competed against Division two powerhouse Cal Poly last Wednesday on the Broncos court but were defeated 97-63.
The Leopards played with intensity and managed to score 63 points on a high contender for the CCAA championship.
Joe Bolander put 14 points away for the Leopards. Both Marc McCoy and Robbie Leark contributed with 10 points each.
McCoy played strong on defense with seven rebounds.
The Leopards began pre-season play in front of a crowd of 80 in the Supertents on Nov. 17 against Linfield. The Leopards were defeated, 82-69.
La Verne received strong offense from Jibril Latif who had the team high of 16 points.
McCoy and Bolander both contributed on offense with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Bolander also excelled on defense with eight defensive rebounds.
On Nov. 19, the Leopards raised its level of play as the team took on La Sierra and came out on top, 86-63.
Bolander continued his consistency on the court with 19 points and seven defensive rebounds.
“Joe Bolander by far is stepping up the most,” Boesel said.
Josh Johnson put up 11 points, while sophomore Steve Rugg made 10.
“We have a really hard pre-season, hopefully it will prepare us for SCIAC,” Boesel said. “We need to continue to play hard and compete.”
ULV begins tournament play today at Menlo College in Northern California and will face NAIA school Albertson College from Idaho in the first round.
Depending on the outcome La Verne will either play Menlo or Southern Oregon in game two on Saturday.
La Verne goes into the tournament with a season record of 1-2.
Journalism operations manager at the University of La Verne. Production manager and business manager of the Campus Times.
