Cal State San Bernardino 69, Cal Poly Pomona 58
Weird, sloppy, fairly ugly game. But it got San Bernardino closer to the CCAA title, and pushed Pomona a little closer to the danger zone of missing the first conference playoffs.
Cal State (20-5) now has won 20 games for the 10th time in 11 seasons and is 13-4 in the CCAA -- leading 11-5 Humboldt State and UC San Diego -- which plays at Coussoulis Arena on Friday night.
Pomona fell to 11-12 and 9-8, and needs to win only one of its last three to clinch a top-eight finish in the CCAA, which puts it into the new conference tourney ... but its last three are against UC San Diego, and at Sonoma State and Humboldt. And Sonoma is the team with a chance to catch the Broncos -- if it can finish with four victories.
Anyway, good win for San Bernardino because it had a four-game losing streak against Pomona. It just wasn't particularly attractive. Actually, it was passionless and dull. But it still counts.
Pomona took only 27 shots. Larry Gordon scored 12 points ... all at the line. Pomona made 21 turnovers, but Cal State committed 18.
Both teams choked off the other team's offense, pretty much. But San Bernardino occasionally worked it inside (mostly to Jason Gilzene, who had 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting) ... while Pomona eventually got to the line when Cal State hacked somebody. Cal Poly was 26-for-34 at the line.
Cal State got 13 points from curious backup guard Renardo Bass, a guy who doesn't look like he could make a difference but does, in a quiet, inobtrusive way. He's almost invisible.
Smallish crowd; official attendance was listed at 815, which is disappointing for what is supposed to be one of the CCAA's top rivalries. But with school tomorrow and, more significant, a light rain falling (and people have noticed it's a long walk from the Cal State parking lot to Coussoulis) ... well, there you are.
Pomona has issues in the backcourt; that's been talked about all year. Bounce-back guard Angelo Tsagarakis, who was at Oregon State for four seasons, was supposed to be The Man, and he thinks he is, but he's a semi-annoying player who appears to be lecturing teammates during games. Maybe it's because he was born in France.
But Pomona also has issues inside, which the rebounding totals reflected. Pomona had only 17 rebounds in 40 minutes, which is a stunningly low total. San Bernardino had 15 just on the offensive end, 28 total.
What I missed: The Cal State band (where were they?), a competitive Cal Poly team (I know, they'd won the previous four, but you had to wonder "how?", especially this year), a strong game by Cal State leading scorer Marlon Pierce (3-for-10, eight points).
Pomona never got closer than seven down the stretch. That made things a bit less interesting, too.
In the women's game, it was San Bernardino 68, Pomona 64. That game apparently was uglier, which is saying something.
The women shot 69 free throws on 53 fouls, spending even more time hacking and standing at the line than did the men, who shot 56 free throws and were whistled for 43 fouls.
Vanessa Wilt had 19 and 14 for Cal State (20-4), her 23rd double-double of the season.