BOX SCORE

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SEASIDE, Calif. — In a triumphant farewell to 2012, the Cal State Monterey Bay men's basketball team put a season-high 10 players on the scoring ledger to roll past Cal State East Bay 98-72 Saturday night in The Kelp Bed.

The win lifts CSUMB (5-6, 1-3 CCAA) to within a game of .500 after 11 games for the first time since Head Coach Rob Bishop's squad opened the 2008-09 season 9-2. It's just the third time the Otters have been in this territory at the NCAA level.

Freshman guard Alex Fertig (Fresno/Buchanan HS) led the Otter offense by scoring a team season-high 25 points in just 25 minutes, his fourth 20-point game of the season. CSUMB also got a season-high 19 points from senior guard Brandon Ward (Riverside/Woodcrest HS), who vaulted past three players into fourth place on the Otter career scoring list with 965 points.

Fertig and Ward were far from the only contributors. Senior forward Kevin Loustale (Chico/Shasta College) pulled down 10 rebounds, junior guard Brandon Cole (Vallejo/Napa Valley JC) added a season-high eight assists and junior forward Julian Ball (Citrus Heights/Sierra College) chipped in a personal-best 12 points.

Sunday's effort was a continuation of the final, frenetic minutes of the first meeting with the Pioneers. In Hayward on Dec. 8, the Otters trimmed 20 points off a 23-point deficit in the final six minutes of an 85-82 loss. Including Sunday's 40 minutes, CSUMB out-scored East Bay by 46 points over the last 46 minutes between to two squads.

East Bay opened the game with a 5-0 run before the Otters used an 18-2 spurt to take their first double-digit lead at 18-7 just seven minutes into the game. The Pioneers chipped away and eventually forged a tie at 30-30 that proved to be their last hurrah.

A Coley Apsay (Santa Clarita/Canyon HS) trey on the ensuing Otter possession gave the Otters the lead for good. Their advantage grew to 49-40 by halftime and was in double digits to stay at 53-42 on a Ward fastbreak layup 39 second after the restart.

A Fertig three pushed the lead past 20 points at 74-53 seven minutes later. A pair of Fertig free throws gave CSUMB its biggest advantage at 89-57 with 8:30 remaining and East Bay never got closer than 26 points the rest of the way.

Jurrell Turner led East Bay (3-5, 2-2) with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double. Nick Marshall came off the bench to grab a game high 14 rebounds.

CSUMB hits the road for its next two games, playing at Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday (Jan. 4) and Cal State L.A. Saturday (Jan. 5). The Otters return home to host No. 8 Cal Poly Pomona on Jan. 11.