Redlands’ Lucas Gordon Named SCIAC Athlete of the Year; Bulldogs Staff Earns Top Coaching Honors

Photo by Adrian Williams

Lucas Gordon during a home game against Chapman University in January 2026.

Source: goredlands.com

Forward Lucas Gordon of the University of Redlands and center Tochi Onyeador of Whittier College stood above their peers to earn David Wells Athlete of the Year and Defensive Athlete of the Year honors atop the 2026 SCIAC Men's Basketball All-Conference teams.
Gordon, a senior, was the leading scorer for the co-regular season champion Bulldogs, who again boasted the league's top offense at 91.9 points per game with an average scoring margin of 17.9 points. The forward averaged 14.3 points while ranking third in the SCIAC in field goal percentage (.592) in addition to grabbing 9.0 rebounds and dishing out 1.5 assists per game.

Gordon also was one of just four players to average at least one block and steal per game with 1.2 steals and ranking fourth with 1.3 blocks despite playing just 23.6 minutes per contest in Redlands' nine-deep rotation.

Gordon has been named First Team All-SCIAC for 2026.
Caltech's Dorian Glogovac earned Newcomer of the Year recognition after impressively leading the confernece in scoring as a first-year with 22.7 points per game. 
California Lutheran University's Ze'ev Remer was bestowed with the Ted Ducey Award, presented to a senior who exemplifies the high ideals demonstrated by Ted Ducey, former head basketball coach at Claremont College, recognizing ability, leadership, self-discipline, determination, sportsmanship and academics.

Redlands and co-regular season champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges led the conference with four total selections each, followed by two First Team picks apiece from Chapman University and Occidental College. 

Chapman senior Jake Heberle made the First Team for a third career time while Gordon repeated on the top squad and UR senior Omari Ferguson earned a second consecutive All-Conference nod.

Joining them on Second Team All-SCIAC this year from Redlands is senior guard Jake Hlywiak and junior Jhace Boston.

Eric Bridgeland and the Bulldogs Bench were acknowledged with Coaching Staff of the Year honors after sharing the regular season title for a second consecutive season.

An average scoring margin of 17.9 points per game with the league's top-ranked offense (91.9 points per game) carried Redlands to a 13-3 record and the top seed in the SCIAC Tournament for the first time since 2013. Nine players averaged between 17.9 and 24.6 minutes per game with relentless defensive pressure and league-leading 11.63 steals per game resulting in a 7.00 turnover margin while the Bulldogs poured in 10.3 made three-pointers per game and crashed the offensive boards for 14.1 rebounds per game to lead the SCIAC.