THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Cal Lutheran men's basketball (7-5, 2-1 SCIAC) narrowly defeated Chapman (8-4, 2-1 SCIAC) on Monday evening after two free throws from Tony Angelo with under two seconds remaining gave the Kingsmen a one-point victory. Ryder Mjoen led Cal Lutheran with 14 points, and the Panthers suffered their first conference loss this season.

Chapman got off to a fast start with two early three-pointers to take an 8-2 lead in the game's opening minutes. A triple by Matthew Verkamp captured the Kingsmen's first lead of the game at 11-10. About midway through the first half, Ze'ev Remer buried a deep ball and Jaden Young connected on a jumper set up by a Cody Shen steal to extend Cal Lutheran's lead to 19-14, its largest of the game.

The two teams went back-and-forth for the remainder of the opening half, and a layup by Aidan Crawford with under 30 seconds left gave the Kingsmen a 35-34 advantage heading into the break.

The Panthers came out firing in the second half, retaking the lead and extending it to 48-39 within the first three minutes. Mjoen stayed aggressive, and his third layup in the first 4+ minutes kept Cal Lutheran within six points.

Chapman once again led by nine after a three-pointer, but PJ Jourdain responded with a trey of his own. A layup from Angelo, a three from Josh DeVore, and a layup from Shen contributed to a 10-0 Kingsmen run to take the lead at 55-54 with 10 minutes to play.

In a game of runs, the Panthers quickly went back up by four. Then Verkamp sank a floater, and Mjoen and Makaio Morphy drained triples to put Cal Lutheran up by four.

Chapman responded with its own 10-0 run to take a 69-63 lead with just over three minutes left. Morphy cashed another deep ball and Shen converted a fast break layup to bring the Kingsmen within one point with 2:19 remaining.

Neither team scored for the next two minutes, and Cal Lutheran forced a shot clock violation with 10 seconds on the clock. Young tried a pull-up jumper with a few seconds remaining, but it didn't fall. Angelo skied for the offensive rebound, immediately attempting to put it back up. His defender was called for a shooting foul with 1.8 seconds left.

Angelo calmly netted both foul shots with the game on the line, giving Cal Lutheran a 70-69 victory after Chapman's last-second efforts failed.

Mjoen led the Kingsmen with 14 points, and Verkamp and Angelo each totaled nine. Angelo went 2/3 from the field and 5/6 from the charity stripe, adding a team-high seven boards.

Cal Lutheran will look to carry its momentum forward in SCIAC play when it travels to La Verne on Wednesday night. Tip-off is at 7pm.