HAYWARD, Calif – Four Pioneers notched double figures in Cal State East Bay's 79-60 regular season, home opening victory against Notre Dame De Namur in their first game of the Pioneer Challenge in Pioneer Gymnasium on Friday night.
 
This is East Bay's third straight 1-0 start under head coach Gus Argenal.
 
Freshman Druce Asah scored career best 25 points, including 16 points in the second half, in his Pioneer debut to lead the team. Asah added five rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal on a team high 33 minutes on the court. He shot 8-for-11 from the field, including 4-for-6 from three-point land and he went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. All five of Asah's rebounds came on the offensive end to give East Bay another opportunity to score.
 
Senior Micah Dunhour recorded his first double-double as an East Bay Pioneer against his former team. Dunhour finished with 11 points, a team high 13 rebounds, one assist and one steal in 32 minutes.
 
Junior Kyle Frakes also compiled 11 points while collecting three rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal while shooting 5-for-7 from the floor in 25 minutes of game play.
 
Drew Bender led East Bay with 11 points, two assists, a rebound and one steal off the bench. Bender went a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line.
 
Juwan Anderson paced the Pioneers with seven assists, while scoring four points, snagging four rebounds and knocking down both his free throws.
 
Jalen Richard tallied five points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block in 23 minutes of action.
 
Pierre Carter also finished with eight points and a tied a team high with two steals in 24 minutes while turning in a strong defensive outing.
 
The Pioneers took a 43-38 lead into the intermission after getting off to a rather slow start. East Bay then picked up the defense and began to open things up from beyond the three-point arc. CSUEB outscored Notre Dame De Namur 36-22 in the second half.
 
The Pioneers stiff second half defense held the Argonauts to 27.59 percent shooting after halftime and 39 percent accuracy for the game. CSUEB finished the game shooting 45.8 percent from the floor.
 
East Bay dominated Notre Dame De Namur in second chance points 23-12, while also outscoring the Argonauts in points off turnovers 13-4 and controlled the paint scoring 32-28.
 
Fourth year head coach Gus Argenal was proud of how his team played as the found a way to win heir first game of the 2016-17 season.
"Our guys played really well tonight," Argenal said. "It's always great to open the season up with a great home win. They came out and played with plenty of passion and enthusiasm. And the Pioneer fans did a great job of backing us up and making it difficult for the opposing team. Now is time to strap it up because we're going to need to play with the same intensity if we want to come away with a win against a tough Western Washington team tomorrow night."
 
Michael Karimu led the Argonauts with 16 points and six rebounds. Lance Page added 15 points, four rebounds and three assists for Notre Dame De Namur.
 
The Pioneers will have a quick turn around as the square off against Western Washington (1-0) in day two of the Pioneer Challenge. The game will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Pioneer Gymnasium. Sonoma State and Notre Dame De Namur will play the first game at 5:30 p.m.