TURLOCK — Before Friday night's game, AJ Bigornia played all of 48 seconds this season. Well, during Stanislaus State's home opener against Cal State Monterey Bay, the sophomore from Glendora was a spark plug for his team as the Warriors defeated the Otters, 68-61, at Fitzpatrick Arena.

Bigornia scored 14 points — all during a 4-minute and 25-second window — for his career high and Joey Bennett scored 14 points for his best game this season thus far to lead Stan State. The Warriors improved to 3-5 overall and 1-1 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association before hosting Humboldt State Saturday night.

Behind Bigornia and Bennett, the Stan State bench scored 42 of the team's 68 points on the night. Keiland Callum also scored nine points with four rebounds and five assists off the bench.

Cal State Monterey Bay (2-7, 0-3 CCAA) came out on fire, hitting its first four shots — all of them from long distance — to take a 12-0 lead to begin the game. 

Then, Stanislaus rallied. Bennett hit back-to-back three-pointers as a part of a 13-2 Warrior run that cut their deficit down to one, 14-13, with 12:27 to go. It was Bennett who hit another triple, at 9:25, to give the Warriors' their first lead at 20-17.



Then it was Bigornia's show time. Listed at a generous 5-foot-7, Bigornia scored his first point on a free throw, which gave Stan State a six-point lead. CSUMB responded with three straight points, but Bigornia denied the Otters' threat. After trading treys with Joe Covarrubias, Bigornia hit consecutive three-pointers and made an elbow-jumper for a personal eight-point run to extend the Warriors lead to 11 with 1:40 left in the first half. He would make two more free throws with 58 seconds left to cap the Warriors' late surge by scoring all 14 of the team's points in the final five minutes.

After the CSUMB 12-0 lead, the Warriors out-scored the Otters 41-19 the rest of the first half.

Stan State would never look back from the 41-31 halftime lead and led by as many as 12 points early in the second half. Monterey Bay did get within five points on a Jonquis Bouyea three-pointer at 8:20 left, but the Warriors made their free throws in the final minutes to seal the victory.

As a team the Warriors shot a sparkling 50 percent from the floor. They were also a decent 17-for-24 from the free throw line. Stan State out-rebounded CSUMB, 37-23 and recorded 18 assists on 21 made field goals. Vondel Faniel and Kyle Gouveia each had six rebounds. Faniel scored 11 points for his third straight double-digit scoring game.

Stephen Matthews led CSUMB with 17 points and six assists while Jahvon Johnson finished with 12 points.