SAN BERNARDINO — With the possibility to gain a little bit of ground in the conference standings, the Warriors managed to battled Cal State San Bernardino and forced overtime before falling, 72-65, Saturday night.
Returning to the site of last year's NCAA West Region tournament at Coussoulis Arena, the Warriors used a strong second half defensively to rally from down 10 points to get a chance in the extra period. But the Coyotes held home court as the only host team to win in the three overtime games in the conference on the night.
Tyler Barber led the Warriors with 17 points,
Shey Mataele scored 10 points with seven assists and
Wes Bartole pulled 10 boards to lead the Warriors (14-8, 11-7).
The Warriors had a chance to gain a game in the standings with Humboldt State ending first place Chico State's 10-game winning streak. Instead, the Warriors will finally return home after the 1,400-mile bus trip in a four-way log-jam for third place.
The Warriors, Humboldt State, UC San Diego and Cal State San Bernardino are all 11-7 in conference play. Chico State and Cal Poly Pomona are tied for first at 14-4.
Free throws actually got the Warriors into overtime but it was also the Coyotes' foul shot scoring that made the difference.
After going 0-for-7 in the first half on the charity stripe, the Warriors hit 10 of 12, including all five Stanislaus points in the final 4:39 to take a two-point lead with :40 seconds left. But a Tevin Harris dunk with 34 ticks left sent the game into ovetime.
The Coyotes, then, made nine of 11 free throws in the final two minutes of OT to post the win. For the game, CSUSB was 22 for 34 on the foul line.
Down by 10 in the first half and nine at 14:12 in the second half, the Warriors used a 14-5 run to tie the game, when
Alek Carlson's layup made it 54-54 with 5:32 left to play.
After a Jacob Thomas triple, no one would make a field goal until the Harris Dunk.
Stanislaus has a three-game lead on seventh place teams Cal State Monterey Bay and Sonoma State with four games to go in the regular season. The top six teams advance to the CCAA Championship tournament at Stockton Arena, March 7-9.
