Box Score OCEANSIDE, Calif. – Adam Alfaro and
Kelly Lord set career-highs in the final home game of their respective Cougar careers as the No. 6 Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team wrapped up the 2012-13 regular season with a 96-76 victory over Bethesda on Saturday night at MiraCosta College.
Alfaro went 6-of-9 from behind the arc to finish with a team-high 18 points. Lord scored 10 on 5-of-6 shooting, adding three two-handed jams that brought the 400 fans in attendance to their feet.
Quincy Lawson added 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting while
Danny Redmon tallied 15 points, six assists and four steals.
Bryan Emanuel matched Redmon in the assist column to go along with six points and five rebounds.
CSUSM (23-5) finishes its regular season as a winner in 15 of its last 16 contests. The Cougars will likely be the top seed for Mar. 1-3's Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) Conference Championship in Montgomery, W.Va.
The winner of the A.I.I. postseason tournament will be granted an automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament.
The Cougars were sluggish out of the gate and trailed 19-18 midway through the opening frame. However, CSUSM rattled off three consecutive buckets capped off by a dunk from Lawson and a dribble drive by Redmon to take a five-point lead.
An
Adam Eakles layup made it 36-28 before back-to-back 3-pointers from Alfaro pushed CSUSM up 11 at the 4:32 mark.
The Flames pulled within five, but the Cougars finished the half on a 5-0 spurt to take a 50-40 lead into the break.
Up 11 three minutes into the second stanza, Lawson scored the game's next seven points before
Jeremy Ford got into the action with a left-handed drive in the paint to make it 66-46. Alfaro added two more treys to put the Cougars up 26.
Lord jammed home two more at the rim and
Hakeem Washington hit a floater to hand the Cougars their biggest lead of the game, 86-53, with 8:51 remaining.
Ford put an exclamation on the evening with a breakaway two-handed tomahawk jam with 56 seconds left.
10 Cougar seniors were honored in a Senior Night ceremony prior to tip-off.