ROHNERT PARK, Calif. – The No. 19/19 Cal State San Marcos men’s basketball team (16-4, 12-4 CCAA) earned an 84-59 victory over Sonoma State (3-24, 3-18 CCAA) in its penultimate game of the regular season on Thursday night at The Wolves’ Den.
TOP PERFORMERS
Blake Seits – 27 points | 5 rebounds | 5 steals
Greg Milton III – 16 points | 5 rebounds | 3 assists
Tyrone Nesby IV – 12 points | 5-of-6 FG
Joel Mensah – 10 points
Jayce McCain – 6 assists | 3 rebounds | 2 points
HOW IT HAPPENED
Down early at 15-7, the Cougars rattled off 11 consecutive points and took the lead for good at 18-15 with a 3-pointer by Nesby with 11:29 to go in the first half.
CSUSM took a 41-33 lead to the locker room after 20 minutes of play.
Blake Seits led the Cougars with 11 points at halftime as the team shot 57.7% (15-of-26) from the field while the Seawolves were nearly as accurate at 54.2% (13-of-24).
A 3-pointer by SSU’s Nick Klarman cut CSUSM’s lead to 44-40 with 17:05 to play, but it ended up being the closest the Seawolves came to the Cougars’ lead.
CSUSM took a 20-point lead at 67-47 on a Seits 3-pointer with just over 10 minutes remaining. From that point, the Cougars retained a 20-plus point lead for the remainder of the half.
The Cougars took their largest lead of the game with 1:28 remaining at 84-58 as Nesby got a layup to go off an SSU turnover.
FAST BREAKS
CSUSM retook third place in the CCAA standings as Cal State Monterey Bay fell 71-68 to Cal Poly Pomona.
The Cougars ended the game shooting a season-best 58.5% (31-of-53) from the field while the Seawolves finished at 46.8% (22-of-47).
CSUSM won the battle of the boards at 30-24 while also leading the way in assists (15-13) and steals (10-6).
Seits’ five steals and 11 made field goals were both career highs.
With 129 career 3-pointers, Seits is now 11 shy of Tyson Kygar’s (2014-15, 2016-17) career record of 140. He also moved to third on the all-time scoring list at 691 career points – 41 points shy of Jacob Ranger’s (2011-13) record of 732.
This was the Cougars’ fifth 20-plus point win of the season with the last being CSUSM’s 33-point victory over the Seawolves on Jan. 8 at The Sports Center.
CSUSM is now 8-3 in the all-time series against SSU and have won the last five games in the series.
UP NEXT
CSUSM will close out the regular season on Saturday at Cal Poly Humboldt. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
