Box Score CHICO, Calif. -- Despite a career high 30 points from Gabe Kindred, the Cal State East Bay men's basketball team came up short on Friday night, losing to 25th-ranked Chico State by a score of 83-75. The Pioneers (6-9, 3-6 CCAA) were unable to pick up their first road victory of the season at Acker Gym, where the Wildcats have now won 17 straight games. 

East Bay held Chico State (11-2, 7-2 CCAA) to just 39.3 percent shooting for the game, but the Wildcats attempted 24 more free throws than the Pioneers --- making 11 more --- and out-rebounded them handily, 46 to 32. That was enough to spoil Pioneer head coach Gus Argenal's first time back in Chico at the helm of CSUEB. Argenal was an assistant for the Wildcats in 2011-12, a season for which current Pioneer assistant Jay Flores was named the CCAA's Most Valuable Player as Chico's point guard.

"Coach Clink is a great leader, and his team played with high emotion and execution at the end of the game," said Argenal, following the loss. "He is a friend and a mentor of mine, and it was a special opportunity for our team to compete against another top-25 squad. We played with great passion all night and had our chances to get a huge road win. Time just ran out on us."

Kindred was 7-for-13 from the field and 13-for-16 from the free throw line, giving him the first 30-point game for any Pioneer this season. The senior also knocked down 3-of-5 from long distance and grabbed a team-leading six rebounds. 

Mark Samuels was the only other East Bay player to score in double figures, tallying 19 points on 6-for-12 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. As a team, the Pioneers shot 82.8 percent from the stripe (compared to 66 percent for Chico), but it wasn't enough to make up for the discrepency in attempts.

From the floor, Samuels and Kindred combined to shoot 52 percent in the game (13-for-25), but the rest of the squad struggled, totaling 28.6 percent (10-for-35). The team finished at 38.3 percent overall, dropping their record to 0-5 when theyr shoot under 40 percent.

Jarred Jourdan knocked down a couple of three-pointers to finish with six points. The junior aslo grabbed six rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. Jacari Whitfield also totaled six points (2-7 FG).

Nick Grieves notched four points in 20 minutes, but the junior went 0-for-3 from behind the arc, finishing without a made three-pointer for the first time in his Pioneer career.

Senior Ryan Hebebrand grabbed five boards on a night when he had to work hard around the basket on both ends. Kyle Frakes and Dovavon Jackson each totaled two points and three rebounds.

The Pioneers also got bench contributions from freshman Aaron Cameron, who had two points, and senior Kenneth Farr II, who knocked down a pair of free throws after drawing a foul near the end of the first half. 

The game was tight nearly the entire way as the Pioneers gave the Wildcats an extremely tough battle in their gym. The lead changed hands 13 times over the course of 40 minutes as they traded mini-scoring runs. Chico State led 33-30 at halftime, but the Pioneers came out and grabbed the lead, 42-41, just before the first media timeout of the second half.

East Bay led by as many as four, but the Wildcats quickly rallied. With five minutes left to play, the home team made its winning move with an 11-0 run to capture their biggest lead of the game. The Pioneers made one more rally to cut their deficit to five points, but Chico made enough free throws down to stretch to hold off a comeback. 

The Pioneers are back in action tomorrow night with another tough road contest at Cal State Stanislaus. Tip-off the scheduled for 7:30 p.m. following the women's game.