11/8/2019 | Men’s Basketball
LOS ANGELES – Outscoring Biola 13-2 in overtime, the Cal State San Marcos men’s basketball team opened its 2019-20 season with an 86-75 win in the first game of the CCAA/PacWest Challenge at Cal State LA Gymnasium on Friday night.
TOP PERFORMERS
Khalil Fuller – 31 points | 12 rebounds
Alex Gil-Fernandez – 26 points | 5 rebounds | 3 assists
Bryce Sloan – 8 points | 7 assists | 3 rebounds | 4 steals
HOW IT HAPPENED •CSUSM went into halftime with a 41-32 deficit after shooting 46.9% from the floor while Biola shot 55.2%.
•The Eagles’ best scoring run of the game was at 10-0 with 9:26 remaining in the first half.
•Gil-Fernandez began the game shooting 8-for-8 from the field and ended up leading the half with 18 points.
•Biola up its lead to a game-high 16 points at 64-48 with 9:56 remaining in the second half.
•Down 14 with 7:28 to play, the Cougars went on an 8-0 run and cut the deficit to 69-63 after a Fuller bucket in the paint.
•Trailing by six with 1:48 remaining, a couple of baskets by Gil-Fernandez brought the deficit down to 73-71 with 42 seconds on the clock.
•After a missed Biola shot and a defensive rebound by Darius Goudeau with 15 seconds remaining, CSUSM missed the go-ahead three. Fuller came up with offensive rebound and passed it off to Sloan, who made the last-second jumper to send the game into overtime at 73-all.
•The Cougars outscored the Eagles 41-32 with a field-goal percentage of 60.7 as Fuller led CSUSM with 16 points in the second half.
•After Biola opened the extra period with a layup, it was all CSUSM from there as the Cougars ended the game on a 13-0 run with Fuller posting eight points in the final five minutes.
FAST BREAKS •CSUSM moves to 1-0 while Biola drops to 0-1.
•The Cougars ended the game shooting 55.2% (37-for-67) while the Eagles shot 46.8% (29-for-62).
•CSUSM led for just under five minutes for the entire game.
•Fuller came up one-point off his career high of 32 points last season while picking up his eighth double-double as a Cougar.
•Sloan tied his career high for steals with four.
•CSUSM is now tied 4-4 in the all-time series against Biola.
•The Cougars’ last season-opening win came in 2017-18 against the Eagles.
UP NEXT
CSUSM will conclude the CCAA/PacWest Challenge on Saturday by facing No. 23/21 Concordia Irvine at 5 p.m. in Los Angeles.
