Box Score: Cal State Monterey Bay 98, Sonoma State 90
ROHNERT PARK, Calif- Down by 27 with 14 minutes remaining in the game, the Sonoma State men's basketball team went on a vicious 40-14 run over the next 11 minutes to trail by just one point at 84-83, but visiting Cal State Monterey Bay kept the Seawolves from taking the lead, stealing a 98-90 victory in front of a re-energized crowd on Saturday night at The Wolves' Den. SSU has now dropped three straight and has fallen to 5-9 and 3-7 in the CCAA. The Otters moved into a tie with the Seawolves in the conference standings with an identical 5-9 and 3-7 record.
The Seawolves, who came into Saturday night's ballgame leading the conference in field goal and three point field goal percentage, went 0-14 from beyond the three-point arc until
Steven Pratt finally broke through with a long range shot at the 11:15 mark of the second half, starting the furious rally for Sonoma State. From that point on, SSU hit 7 of 8 from downtown, including
Ben Washington's three pointer at 3:55 that put the Seawolves down one point.
The Otter lead extended to six points a minute later, but a layup and a made free throw by
Matthew French on consecutive possessions, put Sonoma State down two points on both occassions. However, Cal State Monterey Bay maintained at least a five point cushion the rest of the way to pull off the road victory.
French had a monsterous game, finishing with a career-high 24 points, six rebounds and six steals, hitting 7 of 11 shots from the field and 9 of 11 from the free throw line before fouling out in the final seconds. He was complemented by four other Sonoma State players, who finished with double figures.
Steven Pratt came off the bench to add 18 points.
Patrick Scott (13), Washington (11), and
James Sandoval (10) had ten or more points on Saturday.
Cal State Monterey Bay was hot all night, hitting on 63.3 percent of its shots (31 of 49), including 14 of 19 from three-point land. The Otters were led by the game-high 31 points of Davion Berry, who nailed six three's and shot 11 of 12 from the charity stripe. Darroll Phillips chipped in with 24 points, as the two combined for more than half of the team's points.
Early on, Sonoma State scored the first bucket of the night -- a jumper by Sandoval -- but Cal State Monterey Bay scored nine unanswered points to lead 9-2. The Otters would hold the lead, eventually jumping out to their largest lead of the first half -- a 52-34 advantage going into the locker room at halftime. They would stretch it out to 27 points before Sonoma State would make its run.
Sonoma State would go on to hit 50.9 percent of its shots (29 of 57), but was just 28 percent from deep (7 of 25). SSU also snatched a season-high 14 steals while forcing 20 CSUMB turnovers. The Otters forced 16 Seawolf miscues, including six steals.
After spending the last five games at home, Sonoma State will now hit the road for a brief two-game road swing to Southern California where the Seawolves will face nationally-ranked Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday and Cal State L.A. on Saturday. Both games will tipoff at 7:30 p.m. from Carson and Los Angeles, respectively. SSU will then return home for a four-game homestand on Jan. 27 when it hosts UC San Diego in The Wolves' Den.
