SEASIDE – The hope for a No. 2 seed in the CCAA Tournament diminished on Friday as Cal State Monterey Bay upset Stanislaus State, 61-58, in an unexpected nail biter, keeping the Warriors just shy of a miraculous comeback at the Otters Sports Center on Friday night.

The Warriors can still finish third and grab the No. 3 seed with a win at Cal State East Bay on Saturday or a Cal Poly Pomona loss. Stanislaus State can finish tie with Cal Poly Pomona to secure the third seed as it holds the tiebreaker over the Broncos. 

Despite their efforts to rally back after halftime, the Warriors were unable to complete the comeback to fall to 15-13 overall and 13-6 in the CCAA. The Otters are 7-19, 4-15 in league play.
 
Before Friday's game, the Warriors had already clinched a first-round home game for the CCAA Tournament by virtue of Cal State San Bernardino's loss to UC San Diego Thursday night. 
 
Once again, the Warriors' points leader in Friday night's game was Cassidy Sanders-Curry, who tallied 19 points, one of only two Warriors to score double digits. She also caught eight rebounds and tacked on three blocks and two steals. Reana Hardin followed with 11 points.
 
Riley Holladay was the team's leading rebounder with 10 and Ana Burch played an aggressive game with five steals.

Cal State Monterey Bay was largely helped by nine three-pointers, including six by Victoria Dorn, who finished with 22 points. McKenna Hill had eight rebounds.
 
Stan State came out lagging once again, giving the Otters a 16-0 lead in the first quarter. The Warriors scored just three points in the first, and this time wasn't able to come all the way back.

By halftime Cal State Monterey Bay was up 24 points at 41-17. After the half time intermission, the Warriors turned their game around and slowly made a comeback with a series of sunken shots by Hardin and Sanders-Curry. Heading into the final period the Warriors trailed by just nine (46-37), by outscoring the Otters 20-5 in the third. 

The Warriors finally got as close as one-point on a 7-0 run late in the game, started by an Angelica Baylon trey, plus layups by Burch and Holladay to make it 59-58 with 20 seconds left to play. But Christine Golfo made two free throws with six ticks left to seal the game.
 
The Warriors will travel to Cal State East Bay on Saturday for the regular season finale at 5:30 p.m. At the conclusion of the night, Stan State will know its opponent in Tuesday night's CCAA Tournament first round game at Fitzpatrick Arena.