Vallejo, Calif. | After dropping the season opener last night, the Warner Pacific University Men's Basketball team (1-1) bounced back big to defeat the hosts of the Frank Dye Classic, California State University-Maritime (0-1), by double digits in an 82-62 road victory.

Winning both the first and second halves by 10-point margins gave Knights' Head Coach Jamayne Potts the freewill to explore lineup versatility and test his young core with maintaining a late-game lead under road-game pressures. Ultimately, his team bent but never broke tonight, and managed to pull away with the 20-point win.

Knights' sophomore guard Tyrese Yussuf-Willis dropped a game-high 18 points and 4 assists against the Keelhaulers, shooting 45% field goal percentage from the field, and hitting 8 of 11 free throws to help sustain the Knights' lead throughout the night. With 13 points and hitting 50% of his three-point shots, junior guard Thomas Miles made the most of his 17 minutes played to keep Warner Pacific out of harm's way for a majority of the evening.

The Keelhaulers were led by forward Miles Pennington's well-rounded 12 points and 8 rebounds, while guards Braxton Adderly and Eric Norton each had 13 points. The 16 turnovers by Cal Maritime provided Warner Pacific with the 14-4 edge on points off turnovers, putting the Keelhaulers in a position they were unable to crawl themselves out of.

Warner Pacific Men's Basketball will return home to PDX for a week's worth of practice before hitting the road once again, this time out east to the Montana schools of Rocky Mountain College and Carroll College next Thursday and Friday, respectively. Those games are both set to begin at 7pm MST (6pm PST) next week.