BOX SCORE CARSON, Calif- Despite shooting at a blazing 57.9 percent clip from the floor, the Sonoma State men's basketball team fell victim to a red hot Cal State Dominguez Hills team, which nailed 10 of its 16 attempted three-pointers. pushing the Toros past the Seawolves, 78-59, on Friday night at the Torodome in Carson. SSU falls to 4-7 (2-5 in CCAA action) this season while CSUDH rises to 6-3 overall and 5-2 in conference play.
The Seawolves had their second-best night of shooting this season, hitting 22 of 38 of their shots on Friday. In fact, Sonoma State only missed five of its 20 shots in the second half. However, the Toros lived beyond the arc all evening, hitting seven of their 10 three-pointers in the final 20 minutes of the game to keep SSU at bay.
Cal State Dominguez Hills led from start to finish, sprinting out to a 26-9 lead through the first 14 minutes of play. The lead finally stretched to as much as 18 points (29-11) before Sonoma State scored the final five points of the first half to cut the deficit to 13 points at 29-16. The Toros opened the second half with a three-pointer from Ryan Jefferson, but
Justin Herold, who scored a team-high 13 points, got the Seawolves within 14 (32-18) on a layup at the 19:14 mark. However, that would be as close as Sonoma State would get the rest of the way as Cal State Dominguez Hills eventually opened up its largest lead of the night (62-39) with just over seven minutes left to play in the game.
A 6-0 run late in the half would get SSU to within 16 points (69-53) with 3:52 remaining, but CSUDH came back with five straight points to put the game out of reach, eventually taking the 78-59 win that avenged last year's SSU blowout 73-53 win on Feb. 25 of last year in Rohnert Park.
Herold,
Sterling Arterberry (12 points) and
Jason Walter (10) led Sonoma State in the scoring column; Walter scored nine of his 10 points from outside the arc.
For Cal State Dominguez Hills, Myron Green led all scorers with 14 points, one of four Toros scoring in double figures.
Sonoma State will return to action on Saturday when it heads to the Eagles Nest in Los Angeles to face Cal State L.A. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
