Men’s basketball extended its win streak to four games after back-to-back wins on the road.
The Broncos kicked off their road trip on Thursday night with a huge win over the Humboldt State Lumberjacks and two days later defeated the Stanislaus State Warriors.
The wins pushed the Broncos’ overall record to 17-4 and 13-4 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association conference.
On Thursday night, the Broncos travelled to Arcata and defeated the Lumberjacks, 81-67.
The Broncos had a great night shooting as the team shot 57% (33-for-57) from the field. Senior forward Riley Schaefer led the Broncos in scoring with 21 points along with four rebounds.
“I thought I played well, just trying to be efficient and pick my spots and I think I did a good job of moving the ball,” Schaefer said. “I was able to get some good looks, but I thought I could have defended better, get a few more rebounds, just maybe bring a little more energy, but overall I thought I played well.”
The Broncos’ bench was also huge, as it contributed 28 of the 81 total points.
“We came out second half and played really well,” head coach Greg Kamansky said. “First half I didn’t think we competed like we should be, and they had a guy who hit incredible shots, but second half we found some energy and we really put them away, so I thought we played really good in the second half. We had a lot of mismatches today, and we were able to finish with layups and stuff like that, so we took advantage of that, and our guys read the court really well on that offensively, and that’s how we play, so they did a good job with doing that.”
Early in the first half, the Broncos attempted to pull away with multiple baskets, but the Jacks’ efficient shooting kept the game close.
Midway through the first half, the Jacks finally took the lead after knocking down a 3-pointer.
As the clock wound down, both teams failed to make shots until a Jacks player was sent to the free-throw line and made both shots to take a 4-point lead with less than seven minutes left in the half.
Despite the Broncos’ 16 points in the final five minutes, the Jacks were able to keep up, and after a series of baskets they went into the half only down by one.
In the first 10 minutes of the half, the Broncos picked up right where they left off, and continued with the hot hand and went on a 24-10 run.
The Broncos continued making baskets, which led them to their largest lead of the night by 19 points.
Down the stretch, the Broncos’ defense was huge and kept the Jacks at bay, which helped lead them to a win.
“I thought in the first half we were not communicating well on the defensive side, and second half we were able to cut down on their big shots and that helped us to pull away,” senior guard William Christmas said.
Saturday night, the Broncos were led by junior guard/forward Tavian Henderson, who had 15 points and nine rebounds.
The team got off to a slow start in the first half and went into halftime down by 12.
Despite the 12-point deficit, the Broncos outscored the Warriors in the second half, which led to a 60-57 Bronco win.
The Broncos will return to action at 7:30 p.m. Thursday to host the Chico State Wildcats.