[Men's Basketball] Men's Basketball Ends Season at Vanguard with Loss

COSTA MESA, Calif. – In the last game of the season, the SDC men's basketball team looked to spoil senior night for the No. 10 team in the country.

After a close first half, the Lions were not going to let that happen as Vanguard defeated the Hawks 81-53 Thursday night.

Derek Novsek dropped 24 points and seven rebounds in his last game as a Hawk. Hayden Fredrick added 10 and Nick Crankshaw scored four points but grabbed eight rebounds.

Novsek opened up the game with a layup 40 seconds into the contest to give SDC the 2-0 lead. The Lions then raced to an 18-11 lead. Down seven with 7:08 to go in the half, SDC trimmed the deficit to one. Jared Nyivih scored six straight points for the Hawks but the Lions answered again, this time with a 14-5 run to close out the half.

Fredrick's triple with 13:42 to go in the second half was the closest the Hawks would come the rest of the way as Vanguard overpowered SDC the remainder of the game.

The Hawks shot 32.2 percent from the floor and 6-of-27 from beyond the arc.

SDC finished with a record of 9-18 on the season and 5-13 in GSAC play, the most conference wins since the 2011-12 season.