IRVINE, Calif. -- The Bruin defense allowed a season-low in points as the Bellevue University men's basketball team downed Westcliff University 62-48 on Thursday evening to open up a two-game West Coast road trip.
BU, winners of five of their last seven, improves to 8-6 while Westcliff falls to 2-4 on the season.
Paulo Araujo led Bellevue with 18 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Justin Motley finished a rebound short of a double-double with 13 points and nine boards.
Joshua Jones and Cedric Sobers scored 10 apiece for the Warriors.
Bellevue and Westcliff played tight early. Greg Walter Jr. tied the game at 8-all at the 14:02 mark before Eric Pierce kicked off a 12-4 Bruin run with a layup. Vinny Belcaster capped the run by converting an and-one with 6:09 to play to put BU ahead 20-12.
After Westcliff cut the deficit to three points, Jerome Bynum scored a reverse layup and Araujo banked in a jumper from short range and drawing a foul to extend the lead to 28-21.
Emilio Quemada scored after picking up a steal at midcourt to trim the halftime deficit to 28-23.
Araujo led the Bruins with six points at the break while Marius Ntwari paced the Warriors with seven points.
Bellevue out-shot Westcliff 43% to 28% in the first half and the lead could have been larger but the Bruins shot merely 1-of-8 from the charity stripe.
Out of the break, Westcliff quickly trimmed the deficit to one before Bellevue stretch their lead out to 4-6 for much of the half.
With a five-point lead, Bellevue received back-to-back treys from Pomeroy and Araujo to take their largest lead of the night, 48-37.
Bellevue led by 10 on a layup by Araujo and Christian Carter took a missed Warrior layup coast-to-coast to push the lead to 12, 56-44, with 3:07 to play.
Pierce put the game away at the 2:39 mark with a fast break dunk off a slip pass from Carter but paid a price, landing hard on his back after being fouled.
Bellevue wraps up their California trip on Saturday, Dec. 18 with a 6 p.m. (4 p.m. Pacific) tip-off against the University of Saint Katherine (3-5).
