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Sonoma State University Athletics

Matthew French

Men's Basketball

French Scores 18 To Lead Seawolves To 64-50 Victory

Australian Matthew French led the Seawolves to their CCAA-opening win.
Box Score: Sonoma State 64, Cal State Stanislaus 50

TURLOCK, Calif- Senior Matthew French had a break-out game, dropping in a team-high 18 points and sophomore Sterling Arterberry added 14 as Sonoma State defeated host Cal State Stanislaus, 64-50, on Friday night at Fitzpatrick Arena in Turlock. The Seawolves earned their conference-opening victory while improving to 3-2 overall. The Warriors fell to 1-3 overall (0-2 CCAA).

The Seawolves led from start to finish, scoring the first eight points of the game in the opening five minutes. SSU eventually stretched its lead to a 16-point advantage at 24-8 with 6:49 remaining in the half. Before the buzzer sounded, Sonoma State got up to a 19-point lead and held a commanding 32-13 advantage at halftime. The Seawolves held their opponents to its lowest first half point total since SSU kept Notre Dame de Namur to just 13 points on Nov. 29, 2008.

In the second half, the Warriors never got within 12 points of the Seawolves and SSU held its largest lead of the game at 20 (53-33) with 7:50 remaining in the contest.

French topped his previous career-high of 11, which he scored against Central Washington last weekend, of 7-of-10 shooting. He also corralled a career-high seven rebounds before fouling out with 1:53 left in the contest. Arterberry connected on 4-of-7 shots, including one three pointer. Junior Steven Pratt had a huge game defensively, grabbing five steals and rejecting a Warrior shot -- he scored two points and passed out a game-high five assists.

Cal State Stanislaus held the advantage on the boards, 37-35, but Sonoma State led in assists (12-4), blocks (4-2) and steals (9-4). The Warriors hit on just 28.8 percent of their shots, the lowest by a SSU opponent since a 75-45 victory over Simpson on Dec. 20, 2008 when the Red Hawks hit just 28.3 percent of their attempts.

The Warriors were led by the 21 points of Reggie Jones, the only Cal State Stanislaus player scoring in double-figures.

Sonoma State will head up to Chico State to face the Wildcats on Saturday with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Art Acker Gymnasium in Chico. Chico State (4-1, 1-1 CCAA) suffered its first loss of the 2010-11 season on Friday evening -- a 84-81 defeat in overtime to the visiting Humboldt State Lumberjacks.