TURLOCK — In front of the largest home attendance during the CCAA era, the Cal State Stanislaus Warriors didn't show the spirited student-body crowd why they are among the top four teams in the conference.
Cal Poly Pomona had very little trouble winning Friday night in front of near-capacity crowd inside the Ed & Berta Fizpatrick Arena as the Broncos stay tied with Chico State in first place after the 77-48 win. The Broncos are now 16-4 overall and 12-3 in the CCAA. Chico State, which beat UC San Diego, too is at 12-3 in conference play.
Saturday night, with Pomona and Chico State battling for sole possession of first place in Chico, the Warriors will host UC San Diego for the third place spot. Tipoff on Hall of Fame and Alumni night is at 7:30 p.m.
The Warriors never really had a chance Friday night after another cold-shooting start with just two points to show for three and a half minutes into the game. By then, it was 10-2 in favor of Pomona. The
Chris Read layup at 16:36 finally ended the 10-0 Broncos run to start the game.
Cal Poly Pomona would use another 11-0 run by the time the second media timeout came around for a 26-7 lead at 9:36 to go. And the rout, in front of a loud student crowd on homecoming night ready to roar, was on.
By the time Jordan Finn hit his second three-pointer of the first half, Cal Poly Pomona had built a 26-point lead. It was Pomona's seventh three-pointer of the half, versus the Warriors' zero. Finn would finish the night with 14 points, Jordan Faison led with 15 while Barry Bell (12 points) and Terrence Drisdom (10) also got into double digits.
In the end, the Warriors shot just 35.6 percent, their third straight sub-40 percent shooting night. Collectively, the Warriors were 16 of 45 and 4 of 16 from the arch. Stanislaus also turned the ball over a season-high 20 times (Pomona had just seven).
The Warriors were led by
Shey Mataele's 11 points.
Chris Read and
Alek Carlson both chipped in nine points.
Wes Bartole had six points and six rebounds.
Alek Carlson and
Clinton Tremelling each made a pair of three-pointers.
Friday night's attendance of 1,928 was the best home attendance during the Warriors' CCAA era, besting the 1,824 mark set on Dec. 7, 2001 against Cal State San Bernardino. The figure was the second best total recorded around the CCAA this season. It was also the largest attendance for Stanislaus, inside the Arena, since Jan. 11, 1992 when 1,957 saw a game against UC Davis.