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Vernon McKnight

Otters Conclude Four-Game Home Stand This Weekend

| By: By Kevin Gilmore
The Otters hope to continue to rise in the standings by hosting UC San Diego (Friday) and Cal State San Bernardino (Saturday) in The Kelp Bed.

CSUMB hosts UC San Diego (Jan. 18) and Cal State San Bernardino (Jan. 19)





SEASIDE, Calif. -- The Cal State Monterey Bay men's basketball team concludes its current four-game homestand with a pair of games Jan. 18 and 19 in The Kelp Bed. The weekend kicksoff against UC San Diego Friday evening. The game tips off at 7:30 p.m. as the night cap of a doubleheader with the women's teams (tipoff at 5:30 p.m.).

Fans can listen live in the Monterey Bay area on KRXA 540 AM or watch online at OtterAthletics.com. Rob Ponce will call the play-by-play while former Otter Ian Hosford handles the color duties.

Click the Gameday Central link for complete pregame, in-game and postgame coverage.


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SCOUTING THE TRITONS: The Tritons have been playing their best basketball of late, nearly upsetting Cal Poly Pomona (51–52) before posting consecutive wins over Humboldt State and Chico State. They enter Friday's game in The Kelp Bed coming off a 77–67 loss to in–form Cal State Stanislaus. Senior guard Tyler McGrath leads the UCSD offense at 16.4 points per game. Junior point guard James McCann adds 13.8 ppg and a team–best 40 assists. Senior forward Justin Brue, a high school teammate of Otter guard James Thomas (Castro Valley/Bishop O'Dowd), is the Triton's top rebounder (6.0 rpg).

WHEN LAST WE MET: Five Otters scored in double figures — and two recorded double–doubles — but it wasn't enough to stop UCSD from taking an 80–67 decision in The Kelp Bed on Feb. 17, 2012. Kevin Loustale (Chico/Shasta College) and Geoff McIntosh (Gig Harbor, Wash./N. Oklahoma) each scored 14 points while Loustale chipped in a game–high 11 boards. Tyler McGrath led all scorers with 21 points for UCSD.

WHEN LAST WE PLAYED: The Otters finally got the Humboldt monkey off their collective back (see below) by defeating the Lumberjacks 70–61 Saturday night in The Kelp Bed. CSUMB never trailed, needing slightly more than 10 minutes to open a 24–6 lead. Senior guard Brandon Ward (Riverside/Woodcrest HS) scored 17 of his game–high 21 points in the first half to help the Otters take control.

WELCOME TO THE CHILIAD CLUB: The exclusive CSUMB Chiliad Club welcomed its fourth member Saturday night when Brandon Ward's 21 points lifted his career total to 1,018. He passed former Otter player and coach Joe Mitchell for third place in the CSUMB record book. Matt Dalhamer owns the CSUMB career record with 1,075 points from 1999–2001.

DOING THE MATH: To save everybody the bother of doing the math, Brandon Ward needs to average 4.1 points per game over the final 14 regular season games to become CSUMB's career scoring leader.

BETTER THAN AVERAGE: And, in case anybody is wondering, Brandon Ward enters the weekend averaging 11.9 points per game on the season and 10.9 ppg for his career. The latter mark ranks No. 8 in the CSUMB record book.

A LITTLE SOMETHING IN RESERVE: The Otter bench more than held its own in the Dec. 15 win over Academy of Art, out–scoring the Urban Knight reserves 45–6. In fact, the Otter reserves have out–scored their counterparts in 13 of 15 games this season (Oklahoma Panhandle edged the Otters 37–34 in that department on Nov. 17 and Cal Poly held on for a 26–21 edge on Jan. 11). The CSUMB bench has out–scored its opposing bench by 547–334, an average of 14.2 points per game.

ON THE BLOCKS: Junior forward Kris Gallop (Vallejo/Los Medanos College) posted a team season–high four blocks Jan. 5 at Cal State L.A. That mark is tied for the No. 4 spot in the CSUMB record book and were the most blocks since Andrew Castro blocked five shots in a win at Cal Poly SLO on Nov. 18, 2010. He added his 15th block of the season in Saturday's win over Humboldt State, moving him into the No. 10 spot on the CSUMB single–season list.

ROAD SWEET ROAD: By defeating Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson on Jan. 4, the Otters picked up their first road win since they beat Cal State L.A. 73–69 on Feb. 12, 2011. It snapped an 0–18 skid in away games.

GETTING OFF THE SCHNEID: The Otters got off the schneid with Saturday's 70–61 win over Humboldt State. CSUMB is now 1–17 all–time against the Lumberjacks. In fact, Humboldt State was the only school CSUMB has played as least five times and had not beaten in men's basketball.

SO CLOSE… The Otters just missed scoring their most points in a regulation conference game during the Rob Bishop era by hanging 98 points on Cal State East Bay Dec. 30. The high water mark is 99 points in a 99–88 win at Cal State Stanislaus on Jan. 30, 2009. The 98 points were the third most scored in a regulation CCAA game in Otter history, trailing only the aforementioned game at Stanislaus and 107 points (also at Stanislaus) on Jan. 19, 2007.

DOUBLE TROUBLE: By scoring 180 points versus Academy of Art (82) and Cal State East Bay (98), the Otters set a school record for points in consecutive regulation wins over NCAA Division II competition. The 2006–07 Otters scored 188 points in consecutive games versus Chico State (99) and Cal State Stanislaus (89), but fell in the Stanislaus game, 96–89.

THE WARD GIVETH… Brandon Ward's assist in the Jan. 12 win over Humboldt State gives him 221 career assists, good for No. 2 in the CSUMB record book. D'Shon Cannon owns the top spot with 371 assists from 2006–08.

…AND THE WARD TAKETH AWAY: Brandon Ward continues his quest for the CSUMB career steals record, entering the UC San Diego game tied with Steve Monreal at 79 steals for the No. 4 spot. Joe Mitchell holds the record with 91 steals.

WORKING OVERTIME: One area where the Otters have excelled in the Rob Bishop Era is in overtime. CSUMB was 2–0 in overtime during the 2011–12 season and 6–1 overall when playing bonus basketball under Bishop.

LARGE MARGINS, HOME EDITION: The season–opening 104–52 win over Pacifica University set a CSUMB record for largest margin of victory (52 points) in an Otter home win. Last night, CSUMB's 78–58 win over Colorado Christian was the largest margin of victory in a road game during the Road Bishop era at CSUMB. The previous record was 19 points in an 83–64 win at Cal State East Bay on Feb. 3, 2011.

LARGE MARGINS, ROAD EDITION: Nov. 16th's 78–58 win over Colorado Christian was the largest margin of victory (20 points) in a road game in the Rob Bishop era of Otter basketball.

NOW THAT'S SMARTS: After leading the conference with three members of the CCAA All–Academic team in 2011, the Otter men's basketball team built on that success by placing four players on that team in 2012: James Albert, Geoff McIntosh, Brandon Ward and Troy Watkins. CSUMB's seven CCAA All–Academic team members over the last two seasons are tops among the 12 conference schools. Ward, in fact, is a three–year member of the CCAA All–Academic team.

Ward and Albert were both recently named Capital One Academic All-America® nominees for 2012-13.

FERTIG NAMED TO ALL–TOURNAMENT TEAM: Freshman guard Alex Fertig (Fresno/Buchanan HS) picked up the first piece of hardware for the Otters this season, earning All–Tournament recognition at the GCI Alaska Invitational. He averaged 18.7 points per game over the weekend, including CSUMB's first 20–point games of the season with 24 vs. Colorado Christian and 21 vs. Oklahoma Panhandle State.






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