SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (18-9, 17-5 CCAA) finished the regular season with a 61-58 victory over Sonoma State (12-16, 11-11 CCAA) and ended CCAA play with a perfect 11-0 record at home on Saturday at The Sports Center.
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Prior to the game, CSUSM honored seniors
Jayce McCain,
Joel Mensah,
Greg Milton III and
Zack Perlstein.
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TOP PERFORMERS
Greg Milton III – 19 points | 5 rebounds | 3 assists
Quinn Denker – 11 points | 3 rebounds | 2 steals
Jayce McCain – 10 points | 7 assists | 2 rebounds | 2 steals
Joel Mensah – 9 rebounds | 4 points
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HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Cougars began the game with its biggest lead of the contest at 10-2 following a Milton 3-pointer with 16:17 left in the half.
- The Seawolves trimmed the deficit to three at 23-20 as Nick Medeiros made the front end of two free throws at the 8:21 mark of the half.
- SSU knotted the game at 28-all with a Dillon Iyawe free throw with 3:27 to play in the period.
- After CSUSM retook the lead at 31-28 on a 3-pointer by Lyle Sutton, a layup by SSU's Austin Fadal and two good free throws by Jaylen Wells put the Seawolves on top for the first time with three ticks remaining in the half.
- A last-second layup by Denker gave the Cougars a 33-32 lead at the half.
- SSU shot 59.1% (13-of-22) for the half while CSUSM came in at 48.1% (13-of-27).
- The Cougars and Seawolves stayed within five points of each other for the entirety of the second half.
- CSUSM took a 44-39 lead on a Milton jumper with 14:40 to play.
- A second-chance layup by SSU's Wells tied the game at 46-all with 12:41 to go.
- Tied at 51, another second-chance layup by Wells put the Seawolves ahead 54-52 with 7:25 remaining.
- CSUSM retook the lead with a 7-0 run to go up 61-56 on a second-chance layup by Denker with 4:05 left.
- Sonoma scored the game's final points on a jumper by Wells with 55 seconds remaining and was unable to get any closer.
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FAST BREAKS
- CSUSM led the game for just over 32 minutes while Sonoma State had it for exactly two minutes.
- The Seawolves ended the game shooting 50% (23-of-46) compared to the Cougars' 43.9% (25-of-57), but SSU tallied 13 turnovers to CSUSM's six.
- Sonoma won the battle of the boards at 33-26.
- McCain once again tallied seven assists against SSU, doing so the first time on Jan. 12.
- McCain also got closer to the CSUSM all-time steals record as he notched his 142nd. He's now just five away from tying Danny Redmon's record of 147.
- CSUSM finished the regular season with a 12-1 record at home – its most wins in a season at home in the Division II era (2015-present).
- The Cougars finished CCAA play with a team-record 17 wins.
- This was CSUSM's seventh consecutive win against SSU.
- The three-point win was the smallest margin of victory in the all-time series.
- The Cougars are now 10-3 in the all-time series against the Seawolves and are 5-2 in home games.
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UP NEXT
CSUSM will enter the CCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed and have a bye into the semifinals where they'll face the winner of No. 3 seed San Francisco State (16-12, 12-10 CCAA) and No. 6 seed Chico State (12-15, 10-12 CCAA) on Friday at noon at Ed & Bertha Fitzpatrick Arena in Turlock.