HAYWARD — Determined to not let Friday night repeat itself, the Stanislaus State Warriors rolled off to a quick start in the first quarter against second-place Cal State East Bay. However, the second place Pioneers stepped up their game in the fourth quarter to defeat the Warriors, 72-65, in the regular season finale Saturday night.
The Warriors (15-14, 13-7 CCAA) took off to an 11-1 start — an opposite of how they started at Monterey Bay the night before, down 16-0 — but Cal State East Bay (19-8, 16-4 CCAA) controlled the second half to turn away Stan State.
Heading into the weekend, Stan State had a chance to play for second place with two wins. Instead, the Warriors will return home as the No. 4 seed in the upcoming CCAA Tournament. The good news is, the Warriors had already scheduled a home game for Tuesday night at 7 p.m. The opponent will be Cal State L.A.
In Saturday's game at Hayward,
Cassidy Sanders-Curry scored 22 points with 10 rebounds for a double-double, as did
Ana Burch with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The duo accounted for 42 of the 65 points as the rest of the team struggled. The next high points total was six — by two players
Caprina Pipion and
Riley Holladay.
Stan State shot just 6 of 30 (20 percent) in the second half to let Cal State East Bay back in the game. Meanwhile, the Pioneers played defense and limited the Warriors to one shot and out on offense. Stan State remained in the game by hitting 14 free throws in the second half, but CSUEB shot 11 of 21 (52.4 percent) in the second half to take over.
Stanislaus was ahead by as many as 14 points with two minutes left to play in the first half, but East Bay cut that to nine at the break.
The second half belonged to the Pioneers as they outscored Stanislaus 45-29. CSUEB eventually tied the game at 49-49 just before the end of the third quarter. The Pioneers then used a 13-2 run to start the fourth quarter for a 64-52 lead they would not relinquish.
Cal State East Bay was led by Remy Puou's 21 points and 14 rebound effort. Morgan Greene pulled 17 rebounds as well.
Stanislaus State and Cal State L.A. met once this season, back on Jan. 14 in Turlock. The Warriors won that game 63-55. Sanders-Curry went off with 21 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Warriors that night. Cal State L.A. is now 15-13 overall and 12-8 in CCAA and has won four of its last five games.
