WarriorBasketball Notebook: Complete PDF Version

The Warriors begin the 2015 calendar year on the road with a pair of California Collegiate Athletic Association games in La Jolla and Pomona this weekend.

Friday, Jan. 2, 7:30 p.m.
at UC San Diego TRITONS (4-4, 2-2 CCAA) | RIMAC Arena, La Jolla, Calif. | Live Stats | Live Video

Series Notes: Cal State Stanislaus has dominated in this series with 7 wins in the last 8 meetings (and four straight at RIMAC). The Warriors lead the all-time series record 20-17.

Last Time We Met... was Feb. 8, 2014, in Turlock. The Tritons won a close game 67-65 despite 24 points from Marcus Bell and 16 from Chris Read.

About the Tritons: UCSD has made a CCAA-best 9.8 three-pointers per game in four conference games … Drew Dyer averages 12.9 points (2.6 three-pointers) per game. Aleks Lipovic (2.8 3PT/game) and Jeff Van Dyke (2.1) are the other two sharp-shooters.

Saturday, Jan. 3, 7:30 p.m.
at Cal Poly Pomona BRONCOS (7-2, 3-1 CCAA) | Kellogg Gym, Pomona, Calif. | Live Stats | Live Video

Series Notes: Cal Poly Pomona owns the head-to-head series, but the Warriors had the upper-hand last season with two wins, including a victory in the Regional semifinal game. Pomona now leads the series 27-8.

Last Time We Met... was the West Region Championship semi-final game on March 15, 2014, in San Bernardino. Taylor Bell scored 22 and Marcus Bell had 21 to lift the Warriors 75-69 in overtime.

About the Broncos: Cal Poly Pomona features the duo of Terrence Drisdom (16.1 ppg) and Jordan Faison (15.1). Drisdom also averages 6.2 rebounds per game … The Broncos averages 68.8 points per CCAA game, which is second best in the league.

Road Warriors
So far this season, the Warriors have been great on the road. Stanislaus is now 5-2 in games played away from Fitzpatrick Arena including all three conference games.

Winning CCAA Games on the Road
The Warriors hope to keep up with their early-season success on the road, especially in league games. The 3-0 CCAA road game start matches the feat acomplished in 2012-13. The 2012-13 team, however, went on to go 4-7 for the year in CCAA away contests. In the program's 16-year CCAA history, there has only been two winning records on the road (6-5 in 2011-12 and 2006-07).

An Impressive OT Win
In the team's last game at Chico, the Warriors rallied from a miserable first half for the win. Stanislaus trailed 19-1 early but used two big second half rallied, including a 29-5 run, to take over the game. After Chico forced overtime, the Warriors prevailed with a Chris Read bucket with six seconds left to win 62-60.

Overtime Games
Cal State Stanislaus has won five straight overtime games after Saturday's win. The Warriors won all four overtime contests in 2013-14, in cluding two extra-period victories during the NCAA West Region tournament. Stanislaus is 19-10 in overtime games during the CCAA era.

Close, Low Scoring Games in Pomona
If history is any indication of how Saturday's game in Pomona will go, it maybe a closely contested low-scoring game. Twice the teams went into overtime last season to settle the score and the three previous games were defensive matches where the Warriors were held to under 50 points a game. In fact, the last two times Stanislaus played in Pomona, the Warriors averaged 45.5 points a game in the two losses.

Streaks Over the Tritons
The Warriors had some great recent success against UC San Diego. Until the Tritons slipped by the Warriors 67-65 in Turlock last year, the Warriors had won seven straight over the Tritions since the beginning of the 2010 season. Stanislaus has won four straight at the RIMAC.

A Tale of Two Halves
The Warriors were completed dominated in the first half of the Dec. 20 game at Chico State. They trailed 19-1 (it was 11-0 before the first Stanislaus point) and 30-17 at the half. But the Warriors turned it around quickly in the second half. They shot 56 percent and 57.4 percent from the 3-point arch as well as converting on 7 of 9 free throw for the comeback. A 29-5 spur finally flipped the game around to give CSUS a 50-45 lead at 5:23 left to play.

Mataele Back in the Lineup
After missing the first eight games, Shey Mataele returned to the line-up on Dec. 20 at Chico State for the first time this season (10 semesters rule). In his season debut, Mataele had five points and a rebound in 22 minutes.

Without Barber
Tyler Barber, who suffered a calf injury late in the first half of the game on Dec. 13 versus Chico Sate, also missed the game against the Wildcats in Chico on Dec. 20. Barber was playing well at the time of the injury as a prolific three-pointer shooter. He had made 16 of 33 three-point attempts (48.5 percent) and is third on the team in scoring at 9.0 points per game.

20-Win Seasons
Last year's 23-win season was the program's  fourth 20-plus wins season:

20-Win Seasons
1986-87    Bob Thomason    20-8
1988-89    John Jones    21-8
1992-93    John Jones    20-8
2013-14    Larry Reynolds    23-9

Program's Best Record
Cal State Stanislaus set a program record with 23 wins in 2013-14, more than doubled the win-total from the previous year (10). The last time a Stanislaus team posted 20 wins was in 1992-93 under John Jones (20-8), the only other time a Warrior team had 20 wins since Cal State Stanislaus became a Division II program.

CCAA Basketball Championships
The 2014-15 CCAA Men's & Women's Basketball Championship tournament will be held March 5-7. Six teams qualify for the event to be held at the Stockton Arena in Stockton. The winner of the tournament would receive the automatic bid for the NCAA tournament.

CCAA Preseason Coaches Poll
The defending CCAA tournament champions Cal State Stanislaus Warriors were picked to finished third this season in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches. The Warriors received two first-place votes and earned 98 points, 10 points behind Cal State San Bernardino, which was picked to finish second. Cal Poly Pomona, which received eight first place votes, was the favor to win the 2014-15 title.