Cal State San Marcos Athletics

COSTA MESA, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (0-1) opened its 2026-27 season with a nail-biting 60-55 loss at Vanguard (1-0) on Monday night at the Freed Center.
 
TOP PERFORMERS
Chase Mayo Harmon – 24 points | 8-of-13 3FG | 2 rebounds
Chris Carrillo – 10 points | 4 assists | 1 rebound | 1 steal
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Cougars took their first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by Chase Mayo Harmon to make it 8-7 with 15:47 to play in the first half.
• CSUSM took its largest lead of the game on a second-chance 3-pointer by Mayo Harmon to go up 22-14 with 9:43 to go.
• The Lions whittled down the Cougar lead with an 11-2 run and retook the lead at 25-24 on a 3-pointer from Mister Burnside with 1:45 remaining in the period.
• CSUSM ended the half with a 26-25 lead after Chris Carrillo hit a jumper with 15 seconds remaining.
• The Cougars shot 32% (8-of-25) in the first half while the Lions clocked in at 40% (10-of-25). CSUSM was able to shoot 46.2% (6-of-13) from beyond the arc while Vanguard came in at just 26.7% (4-of-15).
• Mayo Harmon led all scorers with 15 first-half points.
• Trading the lead seven times in the second half, neither team had more than a four-point lead throughout until Dylan Swillis put Vanguard up 56-50 on a layup with 55 seconds remaining in the game.
• Mayo Harmon trimmed the deficit back down on the next possession, hitting his eighth three-pointer of the night to make it 56-53 with 44 seconds left.
• After the Lions went up 58-53 with two free throws by Jayce Allen, a layup by Carrillo with nine seconds left made it a three-point game at 58-55.
• After a Vanguard turnover, a CSUSM three-pointer missed the mark and ended up in the hands of the Lions, who were fouled and went back to the charity stripe with a second left to seal the game.

 
FAST BREAKS

• CSUSM ended the game shooting 29.3% (17-of-58) while Vanguard shot 40.4% (21-of-52). The Cougars finished at 40% (10-of-25) from downtown while holding the Lions to 28.6% (8-of-28).
• Mayo Harmon finished the game with 24 points to lead all scorers.
• The back-and-forth contest finished with 12 lead changes and five ties.
• This was the first game between CSUSM and Vanguard since Feb. 24, 2015, and ended the Cougars' four-game winning streak against the Lions.
• CSUSM still maintains a 4-3 lead against Vanguard in the all-time series dating back to the Cougars' inaugural season in 2011-12.

 
UP NEXT
CSUSM will head to Concordia University Irvine to face the Golden Eagles on Friday at 7:30 p.m.