EL CAJON, Calif – Forward Josiah De'laCerda was nearly unstoppable in leading the OUAZ men's basketball team to a critical 70-66 win at San Diego Christian College on Saturday afternoon. The senior from Fresno led all scorers with 30 points, while adding five rebounds and a career-high six assists. 22 of his points came when it mattered most in the second half.

The win allows the Spirit (16-6; 8-5 GSAC) to stay close to the top of the conference regular season standings with five games remaining.

After a poor shooting performance at Hope International on Thursday night (35%), OUAZ lit the nets on fire against SDCC by hitting a season-best 56% (28-50) of its shots. Though their first half shooting display was impressive (52%), SDCC built a 13-point lead with five minutes before intermission. A 12-2 OUAZ run the rest of the half cut SDCC's lead to three and set up the Spirit for a stellar second half.

When De'laCerda hit a layup with 15:09 to play, the Spirit finally had the lead that it wouldn't give up. For the second half, OUAZ connected on almost 60% of its second half shots (16-27) while holding San Diego Christian to just 34% shooting.

Senior guard Keshawn Bruner, who posted eight of his 11 points in the second half, now has 687 career points and is closing in on becoming the fifth all-time leading scorer at OUAZ. He needs just 44 more point to surpass Kam Malbrough (730, 2020-2022).

The Spirit will be in action again this week when they host Life Pacific on Thursday (Feb. 2) and Vanguard on Saturday (Feb. 4).