OCEANSIDE, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team said farewell to its "home" gym with an 86-80 victory over Cal State San Bernardino in California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) action on Senior Night Saturday at MiraCosta College.
Taran Brown matched a career-high with 27 points,
Akachi Okugo added 18 and
Darnell Taylor recorded his fourth double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds as the Cougars improved to 15-10 overall and 11-7 in CCAA play.
CSUSB drops to 8-14 overall, 5-13 CCAA.
The Cougars' victory over the Coyotes served as CSUSM's last game at MCC after five seasons of playing "home" games at the local junior college -11 miles west of campus - where they put together an on-court record of 55-9 (.859). CSUSM will move into its brand-new, on-campus facility for the 2016-17 season, The Sports Center.
CSUSM led by as many as 11 in the first half, but the Coyotes held the Cougars scoreless for nearly four minutes late in the frame to take a one-point advantage at the break, 38-37.
However, CSUSM came out with five straight points in the second half to retake the lead and would never trail the rest of the game.
A 3-pointer from Brown broke a 45-45 tie, and
Andrew Bournes followed with an old-fashioned 3-point play to push the Cougars lead to six five minutes in.
Zeke DeBlase pulled CSUSB within two with 10 minutes remaining, but a pair of deep 3-pointers from Okugo kept the Coyotes at bay.
Brown made the Cougar lead nine with under three minutes remaining and the Cougars were able to win the game at the free-throw stripe, where they out-scored the Coyotes, 21-8.
CSUSM moved up to fourth place after this weekend's games and has two more games on its regular season schedule - at fifth-place Humboldt State Thursday and at third-place Cal Poly Pomona Saturday. If the Cougars win both games, they would tie for third place in the conference's regular season.
Five seniors – Okugo, Brown, Taylor,
Declan Daly and
Ben Dickinson – were honored for their service to the program prior to the game.
