Anthony Eramya
Staff Writer
The La Verne Leopards men’s basketball team lost to the Chapman Panthers 64-54 at the Frantz Athletic Court despite a solid shooting night from sophomore guard Sinai Enoch on Saturday.
The Leopards dropped to 2-21 overall following a 81-71 loss to the Occidental Tigers on Wednesday night.
“I am disappointed with the loss, I was feeling it, it felt good out there but unfortunately we couldn’t get the win,” Enoch said.
Enoch finished the game with 22 points, shooting 46% from the field and 50% from three.
Despite Enoch’s performance, only one other starter scored, senior forward Jarid Taylor, and one other player, junior guard Tevin McClain, scored in the double digits.
This made La Verne’s heavy jump shooting offense easy to predict and allowed Chapman to take a strong lead in the first half.
It took the Leopards a little over three minutes to score in the first half, which allowed Chapman to start off up 9-0.
La Verne settled for jump shots in the beginning of the game instead of making aggressive moves towards the basket.
It was not until sophomore forward Seth Shaw entered the game, which shifted the tone immediately.
“I feel like we need to attack the paint and get some easy buckets. We rely on jump shots a lot but I think one of our main goals and strengths of our team is lay ups,” Shaw said. “Whoever is most aggressive is going to win the game at the end of the day.”
Taylor has been one of the most important pieces to the Leopards’ roster, considered to be the team’s ‘swiss army knife,’ meaning he can do it all.
“Jarid is a tough matchup, tough cover and Chapman did a nice job on him tonight by sending double teams because he is too strong for guys usually his size and the bigger guys he’s faster than,” head coach Richard Reed said. “A nice advantage for sure.”
Building a veteran presence in his four years on the team, Taylor hopes to leave his teammates with a positive, lasting legacy.
“It’s important to make sure everyone is involved and utilize everyone’s talents,” Taylor said. “As long as I can make sure everyone else is getting better and continuing to do well, I know my job is done.”
Their next game is against the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Frantz Athletic Court.
Anthony Eramya can be reached at anthony.eramya@laverne.edu.
