Hot off a 16-point win on homecoming night last week, the Warriors will host the annual County Bank Classic on Friday and Saturday with NAIA members Cal Maritime and Dominican, and NCAA Division III member Puget Sound.

MEDIA COVERAGE
Live stats of the game are available by following the links on WarriorAthletics.com. Live streaming audio broadcast of both contests are available on WarriorAthletics.com and Network1Sports.com … Friday's audio webcast will be called from courtside by special guest Thomas Lawrence and Paul Scheet will call the plays on Saturday.

COUNTY BANK CLASSIC & MIKE FERREL MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
The annual County Bank Classic benefits the Mike Ferrel Memorial Scholarship Fund, established to support a men's basketball athletic scholarship annually. It was named in memory of the former Warrior and was originally the Warrior Classic established in 1998. Now in it's 11th year, the tournament was renamed County Bank Classic in 2003 … this year's Ferrel Scholarship recipient will be publicly announced in a pre-game ceremony on Friday or Saturday.

FIRST 2-0 START SINCE 2003-04
Thursday's 95-79 win versus William Jessup pushed the Warriors' season record to 2-0, the first time the team has seen such a record since the 2003-04 season. In Larsen's first year as head coach, the Warriors defeated Hawaii-Hilo, 80-71, in overtime, then defeated Menlo College 86-61 as part of an early-season tournament. Afterwards, the Warriors lost 10 of their next 11 games. The Warriors have now opened a season with a 2-0 record four times in their 11 seasons in the California Collegiate Athletic Association

TWICE IS NICE
Junior transfer Matt Ibewiro (pictured right) showed the home crowd Thursday that his season-opening double-double was no fluke by repeating the performance with another 20-point, 10-rebound showing versus William Jessup. Ibewiro scored 24 points and pulled down 10 boards on homecoming night Thursday. Ibewiro dazzled in his first regular season game Tuesday, scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds against Academy of Art.

IBEWIRO CCAA PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Matt Ibewiro's performance last week with two double-doubles earned him the award of Wilson CCAA Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 17-23. He averaged 23 points and 10.5 rebounds with 2.5 steals against Academy of Art and William Jessup.

REBOUNDING RIGHT
After getting out-rebounded in all three of their preseason exhibitions and their regular season opener against, the Warriors finally topped their opponent in the rebounding category Thursday, as they grabbed 39 rebounds to William Jessup's 29. Ibewiro led the way with 10 rebounds and Michael Dyson added seven, including four on the offensive end.

POTENTIAL FOR GREAT START
Already with two wins under their belts, the Warriors have a chance this season to get off to their best start since the 2000-01 season. There are three more NAIA opponents coming up on the Warriors' schedule, divided by two CCAA games on the road on Dec. 5 and 6. If the Warriors can win the games they are supposed to win against the less-competitive NAIA teams, they could start the season with a record as good as 7-0, or at worst, 5-2, if they lose both CCAA games in December … A 5-2 start would be the team's best start since 2000-01 when the team started 4-0 then lost two games, but won the next. The team has not started a season better than 4-0 since joining the CCAA in 1998.

WHAT A STEAL
William Jessup had trouble holding onto the ball Thursday night, turning it over 26 times, twice as many as the Warriors. Every starter for Cal State Stanislaus had at least two steals, led by senior Benny Koochoie (pictured right) who had three. A total of eight Warriors stole the ball at least once. Ibewiro and Chris Hayes lead the team so far this season with five steals each.

BEST FROM THE BENCH
Sophomore guard Casey Cutts has not started either of the Warriors' first two games of the year, but he joins starting big men Ibewiro and Dyson as the only three players on the team with double-digit scoring performances in both contests. Cutts scored 15 points in 18 minutes played Tuesday at the Academy of Art, shooting 5-for-6 from the field, including a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. On Thursday, Cutts scored 11 points in 20 minutes of game time. Cutts also notched two assists and a steal in his time on the court Thursday.

FRESHMEN FIRSTS
Redshirt freshmen Bryan Castillo and Brandon Curtis made the most of their playing time late in the game Thursday. In just 13 minutes of play, Curtis notched his first career double-digit scoring game with two 3-pointers, a layup during the Warriors' key run in the second half, and a 2-for-2 showing at the free-throw line. Castillo hit a 3-pointer from the left side with just 1 minute, 39 seconds left in the game for his first three collegiate points of his career.

SHARING IS CARING
The Warriors have done an outstanding job this season of sharing the ball and making passes that lead to points. Through two games the team has totaled 35 assists, led by Chris Teevan with nine. On Thursday, a total of nine Cal State Stanislaus players notched an assist. The story was the same Tuesday when seven Warriors were credited with sharing.

HEAD COACH KEITH LARSEN
Keith Larsen is in his sixth season as the head coach of the Warriors. He is the ninth head coach in the history of CSUS men's basketball. Since 2003, Larsen has posted a record of 49-89, including a 14-13 season in 2005-06, the program's first winning season since 2002-03. The 2005-06 team finished as one of the hottest teams in the region, posting a 9-2 record (with nine wins out of 10 during the stretch) to finish the season … Prior to joining CSUS, Larsen was the head coach at Menlo College where he posted a 81-68 record in six seasons and led the Oaks to two conference championships … He has also worked under Mike Montgomery as an assistant at Stanford (1992-97) and Bob Williams at Menlo (1987-98) … Larsen is a 1985 graduate of San Francisco State.

WARRIOR SPORTS NETWORK
Paul Scheet returns for another season as the Warriors' play-by-play announcer and will cover all home games as well as selected road games this season. The broadcasts are available on the Internet on WarriorAthletics.com and Network1Sports.com. In addition, many games will be simulcast on Cal State Stanislaus' student radio station, KCSS 91.9 FM with student Mike Maddox assisting Scheet with play-by-play and analysis duties. Check WarriorAthletics.com for more information and for a broadcast schedule.

WARRIORS ON THE WEB
Check out the Warriors men's basketball team on the web at WarriorAthletics.com — the official website of Warrior Athletics. Visitors can browse player profiles, read game results and statistics, as well as subscribe to the Warriors SMS text messaging updates. The website was newly redesigned this summer through a partnership with Internet Consulting Services.

CCAA BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The CCAA men's and women's basketball championships tournament will return to San Bernardino in March of 2009 with the top eight teams to qualify for the conference's postseason tournament. The first round games will be played on Tuesday, March 3 on campus sites of the top four seeds. The semifinals and finals will be played on March 6-7 at Cal State San Bernardino's Coussoulis Arena. The winner of the tournament would receive the automatic bid for the NCAA tournament.