TURLOCK — Four Warriors scored in double figures and two of them recorded double-doubles as Cal State Stanislaus continued its dominance over Cal State East Bay with a 77-63 win Friday night at Fitzpatrick Arena.
Wes Bartole and
Rob Walters both had double-doubles and
Chris Read led with 19 points to pace the Warriors as they won two straight to improve to 16-10 overall and 13-8 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.
Bartole scored 13 points with 10 rebounds and Walters netted 13 points and pulled 12 boards to lead Stanislaus.
Tyler Barber chipped in 11 points as the quartet tallied 57 of the team's 77 points, accouting for 74 percent of the scoring.
Perhaps more importantly, with the win, the Warriors are now in a two-way tie for fourth place with UC San Diego, a team they beat twice this season. The season series sweep over the Tritons could be important Saturday night in determine the final seedings for the CCAA Championship tournament.
Saturday could be a very interesting night in the CCAA's regular season finale as Humboldt State (14-7 CCAA) hosts Cal Poly Pomona (17-4) and UC San Diego (13-8) traveling to Cal State San Bernardino (12-9).
With a Warrior win Saturday night over Cal State Monterey Bay, Stanislaus would earn the No. 4 seed in the tournament regardless of the outcome of the other two games. HSU would win the tiebreaker by having beaten Chico State twice this season.
If Cal State Monterey Bay were to beat the Warriors for the second time this season Saturday night, then Stanislaus would be the No. 4 seed with a Cal State San Bernardino win or the No. 5 seed with a UC San Diego victory over the Coyotes.
Either way, the No. 4 versus No. 5 game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ,Thursday, March 5 at the Stockton Arena.
Back to Friday's game. The Warriors continued their winning streak over Cal State East Bay by extending it to 12 games after the season sweep. The Warriors scored 70-plus points for the first time in 10 games with the last time also against the Pioneers on Jan. 24 in Hayward (77-67 Stanislaus win).
Read was a prolific 8 of 11 from the field and appeared to be back in the groove offensively. His 19-point out-put followed a 23-point game last Saturday at Sonoma State. In the last three games, Read was 22-for-37 shooting for 59.5 percent with a total of 56 points (18.7 points per game).
Jacari Whitfield, who finished with 26 points, made a three-pointer at 6:14 to go to make it a seven-point game, but the Warriors went on an 8-0 run that included two Read buckets and four Bartole free throws to pull ahead, 70-55.