[Photo gallery]

SAN DIEGO - Vince Boumann's 20 points and 12 rebounds powered the Point Loma men's basketball team to its largest PacWest Conference win of the season with a 70-54 victory over Academy of Art on Saturday, Jan. 28.
 
The win snaps a two-game skid for the Sea Lions (11-8, 7-5 PacWest), and allows them to move two games ahead of Azusa Pacific (which lost Saturday night) for the final spot in the six-team PacWest Tournament. The loss drops ARTU (5-13, 4-8 PacWest) into 10th place in the PacWest standings.
 
Boumann was a force in the middle all night against an undersized Urban Knight team. He went 8-of-13 from the field and pulled down five of his 12 rebounds on the offensive end to allow PLNU to outscore ARTU in second chance points 19-4. It was his eighth double-double of the season, and fourth in his last five games. Boumann also was a key cog in the Sea Lions' dominating performance on the glass, where they outrebounded the Urban Knights by 17 (44-27).
 
"For me this is the team I am more used to seeing (during my coaching career)," said Point Loma head coach Ryan Looney. "We held our opponent in the 50's, and big reason why is our guys had their best week of practice and preparation leading up to the game. We know that in order to be the team I am trying to build we need to be a great rebounding team. I believe our guys did their best job in that area so far this year. We win the game by 16 and are plus-17 on the glass; in my mind those are directly related."
 
Josh Rodriguez and Tanner Lancona joined Boumann in double-figures. Rodriguez had with 17 points, and added a game-high five assists. Lancona hit two of the Sea Lions' seven 3-pointers en route to scoring 10 points. Trevor Peterson recorded a career-high with nine rebounds to help fuel dominance on the glass. He also helped lock down the perimeter attack by the Urban Knights, which shot just 33.3 percent in the game, and 16.7 percent (2-of-12) from 3-point range.
 
Chris Salas lead the Urban Knights with 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting. Dante Williams added 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.
 
The Sea Lions went into halftime leading 40-28 after putting on a 11-2 run over the final four minutes of the half. In the second half, PLNU never let its lead drop to single-digits despite a few spurts from the Urban Knights. A layup by Boumann late in the half put the Sea Lions up by 20 before settling for their 16-point margin of victory. This was the first time in nine games that the contest was not decided by eight points or less. The 16-point margin of victory is the largest for the Sea Lions all season, and was their biggest PacWest win by score since 2014-15.
 
"One of the big things I am excited about is we did get it to a 20-point lead in the second half," Looney explained. "I feel great about is we have three guys on our team, that because of so many close games haven't even got into a game this season. So to see their teammates open it up and allow their teammates to get some reward on game day can only help our moral down the stretch."
 
The Sea Lions will continue their homestand on Monday, Jan. 30 against Notre Dame de Namur at 7:30 p.m. This will be one of the four games at home two next weeks for Point Loma at Golden Gym to close out their 2016-17 home schedule.  
 
"It is great to play home but I would like to have a team that is just as good on the road as they are at home," Looney said. "The reality though is we aren't looking at that. We are just paying attention to the next game and trying to look at every little detail. If that means we are successful during this home stretch that is great, but we are just dialed into being the best we can be in the very next game."