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.
Prior to the game, CSUSM honored seniors Jayce McCain, Joel Mensah, Greg Milton III and Zack Perlstein.
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
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.
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.
Head Coach B.J. Foster recaps today’s 61-58 win over Sonoma State on Senior Day. #BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/l6YTcWGXpW
– CSUSM Men’s Basketball (@CSUSM_MBB) February 26, 2023
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.
