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Postgame Interviews

SAN BERNARDINO — The clock has not struck midnight on the Warriors as this late-season run continues for Cal State Stanislaus men's basketball. But don't call this a Cinderella story.

For the second straight night, the Warriors won in dramatic fashion in overtime as they beat No. 22 Cal Poly Pomona, 75-69. The win sends Cal State Stanislaus to the NCAA Division II West Region championship game — also known as the Sweet 16 round of the March Madness, Division II style.

That Best of the West title contest is slated for Monday night at 7 p.m. against Chico State, for a rematch of last week's CCAA championship game. Chico State blew past Cal State San Bernardino, 94-77. The winner on Monday will get the elusive golden ticket to the Division II Elite 8 in Evansville, Ind., March 26-29.

"We're not looking at this as a Cinderella run," said head coach Larry Reynolds. "We got into the conference tournament and thought we had a good opportunity to win it. We were playing pretty good basketball the second half of the season. We weren't looking at it being in the Cinderella role."

"Now we're just looking at it as going in to play one game at a time and see what happens."

What has happened is the Warriors winning nine stright games to get to this point. They improved to 23-8 overall. With another extra period victory, Stanislaus is now 5-0 in OT games. The Warriors also handed Cal Poly Pomona its first Saturday loss of the year (14-1).

Playing in front of some hometown fans and family, Taylor Bell turned in yet another career high. He bettered his quarterfinal performance with 22 points. The senior from Redlands, which is less than 15 miles east of CSU San Bernardino, had 18 Friday night.

"We got some big performances from Taylor and Clint and even thought they hit a big shot to send it onto overtime our guys picked it up and got after the business of winning the basketball game in the last five minutes," Reynolds said.
Marcus Bell picked up yet another double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds. The Warriors are now 15-3 this season when the senior center notches a double-double.

Rob Walters also earned a double-double with 10 points and 13 boards.

Against the best defending team in Cal Poly Pomona, the Warriors offense held its own, hitting on 50 percent of their shots in the game. The Warriors points total is well over the Broncos' average of 57.7.

Stanislaus led by as many as 14 points, at 40-26, in the second half after a Taylor Bell triple and free throw. But a 19-6 Pomona run made it just a single-point game, 46-45, at 6:52.

Clinton Tremelling, who hit four three-pointers on the night to finish with 12 points, gave the Warriors another four-point lead moments later to spark a Stanislaus run that would extend the lead to 61-54 with 2:45 to play.

But the Broncos wouldn't go away. An 8-1 run that ended with a Jordan Finn three-pointer with 0.8 seconds left forced overtime.