POMONA — Darius Scott almost single-handedly carried the Warriors all the way back to beat the Broncos. Almost.

The junior shooting guard had a tremendous second half in leading the Stanislaus State rally before the Warriors lost to Cal Poly Pomona, one of the best teams in Division II, 64-54 Thursday night.

Scott scored a career-high 24 points, all of them in the second half, to lead the Warriors' charge. Stan State trailed by 20 points early in the half but cut the deficit all the way down to five points before Pomona pull ahead on free throws late.

It was Scott's three-pointer, his fifth on the night, with 2:02 left that got Stanislaus to 59-54. That triple had capped a stretch when the Warriors made 5 of 6 three-pointers. Scott made all five of his three-point attempts in the second half.

Cal Poly Pomona (15-5 CCAA) escaped with the win to stay within a game of front-runner Cal State East Bay (15-4) atop of the CCAA standings. The Broncos extended their winning streak to 10 games.

For Stan State, the Warriors again loose a heartbreaker to fall to 7-12 in league play (10-13 overall). While not mathematically eliminated from postseason tournament contention, the Warriors will have to win on Saturday to have any chance of finishing in the top eight to play beyond March 2.

Scott has had his two best games against Cal Poly Pomona, at least scoring-wise. His previous best was 17-point game on Dec. 1 against these Broncos in Turlock. On this Thursday night, Scott made 6 of 13 shots including those five treys. He also converted on all seven free throws and led the team with seven rebounds.

No other Warrior scored in double-digits. Andy Cleaves suffered another rare night, missing all seven of his attempts. Cleaves had been in the lead with Pomona's William Christmas as the top scorer in the CCAA. Christmas only scored six points Thursday. Riley Schaeer led with 15 points.

Stanislaus State is at Cal State San Bernardino Saturday night. The Coyotes were off Thursday night.