HAYWARD, Calif. --- For the first time in the 2013-14 season, Pioneer Gym will play host to Cal State East Bay basketball this week. The Pioneer men's team takes on William Jessup on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in their home opener. It'll be the final non-conference tune-up before East Bay opens CCAA play against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Dec. 6.
Tuesday's game will be broadcast live with streaming video and play-by-play audio at
PioneerWebTV.com.
SEASON RECAP
The Pioneers have competed in two mini-tournaments thus far, the PacWest/CCAA Challenege hosted by Dominican University in San Rafael, and the 13th Ron Logsdon Classic hosted by Sonoma State in Rohnert Park. They picked up their first victory of the season and the
Gus Argenal era with an 82-77 win over Fresno Pacific.
The Pioneers are averaging 84.5 points per game while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and 70.3 percent from the free throw line. Last season, CSUEB averaged 64.3 points per game shooting 39.2 percent from the floor and 63.0 percent from the line.
As a team, East Bay has grabbed fewer rebounds and committed more personal fouls than their opponents in every game. For a team currently allowing 92 points per game, limiting free throws and second-chance opportunities for their opponents will be a focal point.
PLAYER NOTES
East Bay has gotten tremendous play from the guard position. Their four leading scorers (
Gabe Kindred,
Mark Samuels,
Jacari Whitfield,
Nick Grieves) are all backcourt players, and guards have accounted for 76 percent of the team's total points.
Kindred, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, was named the CCAA Player of the Week for Nov. 4-10. He shot 60.9 percent from the field that weekend and posted the two highest scoring games of his Pioneer career with 23 against Academy of Art and 24 against Dominican. Kindred also set a school record for free-throw percentage in a game when he went 11-for-11 at the line against FPU.
Senior Bam Samuels missed last season with an injury after leading East Bay in scoring each of his first three years. He currently ranks fourth in school history with 1,080 points, sixth with 234 assists, and ninth with 320 rebounds. So far this year, he's averaging 15.5 points per game and leading the team with 4.8 assists per game.
Whitfield, who was the CCAA Freshman of the Year in 2011-12, has scored in double figures in all four games this year and notched a career high with 24 in the win over FPU. He currently leads the CCAA with 15 made three-pointers.
The Pioneers have two additions to the 2013-14 squad who transferred from Division I schools.
Jarred Jourdan (Liberty University) is currently third on the team in rebounding (4.0 rpg) and fourth in minutes (26.3 mpg). Grieves (San Jose State) currently ranks fourth in the conference in three-point percentage (.615).
