LOS ANGELES — For most of the night, it was a solid battle between two of teams jockeying for position in the CCAA standings. Until the Warriors ran out of steam in the second half.
Cal State L.A. capitalized on 19 Stanislaus State turnovers to score 24 points as the Golden Eagles beat the Warriors 94-79, for its third straight win to improve to 12-13 overall and 8-12 in the league standings.
The Warriors lost on the road for the second straight time for just the first time this season, fell to 15-10, 10-9, but remain in a sixth place tie with Cal State San Bernardino. Stan State could have secured a CCAA tournament berth with a win Thursday night, but instead will have to do so Saturday at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
"We ran out of gas tonight. Cal State LA hurt us in transition and with penetration," co-head coach
Paul Trevor said. "We need to get back to work and prepare for Dominguez Hills."
Kaelen Mitchell scored 14 points to lead the Warriors for the third straight game while running his double-digit scoring game streak to six.
Jaelen Ragsdale also scored 14, his season-high.
Andy Cleaves added 12 points and
Ty Davis scored 12. Davis also had seven rebounds and five assists.
Vida Faniel had 10 assists with eight points.
The Warriors won every statistical category, except for turnovers. And the turnovers cost one of the better ball-handing teams.
Cal State L.A. scored 24 of its points off of those turnovers. The Golden Eagles only had five turnovers all night. L.A. also made 10 three-pointers, two more than Stanislaus.
The Warriors had mini-runs of eight- and nine-points in the first half for narrow leads, but a Golden Eagle 7-0 run from the end of the half to the first triple of the second half by Devin Means gave the home team a 49-41 lead.
Later in the second half, a 15-0 LA run put the game away. The spurt turned a 64-60 game into a 79-60 rout capped by a Sean Estes three-pointers with 7:49 to go.
Stan State would not get closer than 15 points when Ragsdale scored four unanswered points late in the game.
Jihad Woods led five Golden Eagles in double figures in scoring. Woods had 19 points.
