CARSON, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay men's basketball team outlasted Cal State Dominguez Hills on Saturday night with a 62-58 overtime win. It's the first road victory of the season for the Pioneers, who have now won two of their last three overall.
CSUEB (6-18, 4-14 CCAA) completes the season sweep of the Toros after capturing a 55-53 victory when the teams met in Hayward back on Jan. 9.
"I have tremendous respect for Coach Becker and the way his team competes," said head coach
Gus Argenal. "We had several different players step up tonight when we needed them most."
Early in the first half, CSUDH jumped out to a 13-4 lead, which would be the largest of the game for either team. The Pioneers rallied back behind three-pointers by
Nick Grieves and
Marcus Norman to cut their deficit to three. They briefly took the lead, but the Toros scored with one minute left to take a 26-24 advantage into halftime.
The game was tightly contested throughout the second half, as the squads traded the lead back and forth a total of seven times. A pair of free throws by Dominguez tied the score at 49-49 with under two minutes to play. Both teams then had a couple chances to make a game-clinching shot, but neither could find the bottom of the bucket before the clock expired.
Senior
Jacari Whitfield took over for the Pioneers in the overtime period. He out-scored the entire Dominguez Hills team with 11 points in the five-minute frame to help East Bay secure the win. Whitfield buried a long three, knocked down a jumper from the elbow, and went 6-for-6 at the free throw line.
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Patrick Marr rebounded and battled inside all night, setting a career high with 11 boards," added Argenal. "Cody and Nick also came up with big rebounds out of our zone defense in the second half."
"But Jacari stepped up, as he has all year in close game situations," said the second-year head coach. "He showed tonight why he's such a special player. He knocked down huge shots in overtime and refused to let us lose. Jacari was the difference late in the game, but this was a program win led by our seniors."
Whitfield finished with a game-high 17 points and seven assists in 43 minutes, reaching double figures in scoring for the seventh straight contest. With another perfect performance at the foul line, he has now made 19 consecutive free throws over the last six games. Heading into next weekend's final homestand, Whitfield ranks first in school history in made three-pointers (183) and free throw percentage (.852) and third in assists (328).
Marr notched the first double-double of his career with 11 points and 11 rebounds, five of which came on the offensive end. He played all 44 minutes tonight before fouling out with a minute left in overtime.
Cody Kale had an efficient night scoring the basketball, totaling 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting along with six rebounds.
Grieves, a fellow senior, also scored 11 points to go along with his four boards. The Aptos native was 3-for-6 from long range and is shooting 50 percent from deep over the last three games (14-for-28).
Kyle Frakes scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds before fouling out, meaning the Pioneers, who started the contest with just eight healthy players, finished it with just six.
Darrick McIntosh played a season-high 29 minutes and turned in valuable interior defense to go along with five rebounds.
As a team, the Pioneers out-rebounded Dominguez Hills 39 to 36 for the night. Their defense also held the Toros to just 38 percent shooting from the field and 2-for-11 from beyond the arc.
CSUEB is back home for the final time next weekend to host Cal State San Bernardino and Humboldt State. Saturday's game will be preceded by a "Senior Night" ceremony to honors the five seniors on the 2014-15 squad.
