TURLOCK — The Cal State Stanislaus men's basketball team gave the large student body crowd a lot to cheer for on homecoming night as the Warriors out-ran Cal State East Bay, 86-83, in another fast pace high scoring game between these two teams.
Reggie Jones scored 23 points and pulled a career-high 17 rebounds as the Warriors earned the final spot in the California Collegiate Athletic Association postseason tournament. Cal State Stanislaus improved to 15-10 overall and 11-10 in the CCAA.
Donald Gaines again contributed off the bench with a career-best 17 points after scoring 14 in last Saturday's win at Cal State L.A.
Dan Daviess, with four three-pointers, finished with 19 points and
Sam Marcus chipped in 10.
The Warriors will return to the CCAA championship tournament for the second consecutive year -- that much is for certain. What's at stake on Friday in the regular season finale against Cal State Monterey Bay will be the tournament seeding and where they will travel to next Tuesday for the first round game.
With Cal State Dominguez Hills losing at San Francisco State Friday, Cal State Stanislaus is now tied for seventh but could finish as high as tied for sixth in the standings with a win on Senior Night tomorrow. The final tournament seed will depending on how all of the tiebreaker scenarios play out.
Winners of Tuesday's first round games on campus sites will advance to the semifinals and finals to be played at UC San Diego's RIMAC Arena in La Jolla next weekend.
Thursday night, in front of almost 1,500 loud and energized fans as CSUS students cap-off homecoming week festitives, the Warriors and the Pioneers put on a show. Both teams played and scored with a frantic pace and shot the lights out, particularly in the first half.
The Warriors nailed 57.7 percent of their shots in the opening 20 minutes of play to go up 43-42 when Jones made a short jumper at the buzzer. East Bay (10-15, 8-13 CCAA) stayed close by hitting on eight first-half treys and shot 50 percent from the floor.
Cal State Stanislaus continued to be hot in the second half and finished the game 26-for-47 for 55.3 percent.
The close game was very much in doubt even after the final media timeout with a slim three-point, 70-67, Stanislaus lead. East Bay threatened to hush Warrior Nation but a
Brett Sayad three-pointer and a pair of Jones free throws gave the Warriors a 75-67 lead with 3:38 left to play.
The lead was again cut down to four at 1:05 with a Roshun Wynne triple to make it 80-76. Jones again made it to the line and made three of his next four tries for a seven-point Stanislaus lead.
The Pioneers didn't go away, coming back with a Mark Samuels layup and a pair of Wynne free throws to make it a four-point game again with 19 seconds left.
Finally a pair of Daviess free throws extended the Warriors lead back up to six until a final Wynne three-pointer with five ticks left for the final score.
In the end, East Bay made 13 three-pointers, led by Wynne's 19 points (he made four treys). Samuels finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
