ORANGE, Calif — Men's basketball will travel to Thousand Oaks on Friday, Feb. 23, to take on No. 8 Cal Lutheran in the 2023-24 SCIAC Men's Basketball Postseason Tournament.

Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming matchup between the No. 4 seeded Panthers and No. 1 seed Kingsmen. 

BACK IN THE DANCE

The Panthers return to the SCIAC tournament after missing out in 2023. They placed second in the tournament and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in 2022. 

This is the sixth time in 11 seasons Chapman has made the SCIAC tournament under head coach Mike Bokosky. The Panthers won the tournament twice – 2014 and 2016.  

MATCHUP HISTORY

The Panthers lead the Kingsmen all-time with a 13-8 record. The Kingsmen have won four out of the last five meetings and both matchups this season.

The last time these two teams met in Thousand Oaks, the Kingsmen won handily, 90-72. 

18-STRAIGHT

After starting the season 4-3, the SCIAC regular season champion Kingsmen have rattled off 18 consecutive victories. Cal Lutheran is ranked eighth in the nation by d3hoops.com and first in NCAA Division III Region X.

The Kingsmen's three losses this season have been to No. 2 Randolph-Macon, RV Hood, and RV Claremont-M-S, with their most considerable loss a nine-point defeat at Randolph-Macon. 

THREE-HEADED MONSTER

The Panthers have three scorers closing in on 15 points per game or more. Blakeley Stoughton leads all scorers at 16.5 on 50.7% shooting. Jake Heberle is close behind, scoring 16 points per game on 47% shooting from beyond the arc. McKelary Robertson has been a great third option, scoring 14.6 points on 45.6% shooting from the field. 

The trio combined for 19 20-plus point games this season. All three are top-10 in SCIAC in scoring: Stoughton is fifth, Heberle is sixth, and Robertson is eighth. 

UNDERDOGS

In the 2022-23 SCIAC tournament, Cal Lutheran snuck into the tournament at 8-8, beat No. 1 Pomona-Pitzer in Claremont in the semi-finals, then defeated No. 3 Redlands on the road to steal the SCIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Panthers will look to deal an uno-reverse card to the Kingsmen this time around.

GAME INFORMATION

Tip-off is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m. in Gilbert Arena. The game can be streamed at sciacnetwork.com.

Tickets can be purchased here.