Men's Basketball | December 16, 2014

SEASIDE, Calif. — The Cal State Monterey Bay men's basketball hopes to give its fans a pair of early Christmas presents when it closes the 2014 calendar year with a pair of home games this week. The Otters will host Great Northwest Athletic Conference foe Northwest Nazarene University Thursday (Dec. 18) at 7 p.m. before returning to CCAA action with a 3 p.m. matinee versus Cal State East Bay.

Fans who can't make it to The Kelp Bed can watch locally in HD on Campus Televideo Ch. 73.1 and listen live on KION 1460 AM/101.5 FM. The games will also be streamed live on OtterAthletics.com and on the KION iHeartRadio stream. As usual, Rob Ponce will handle the play–by–play duties and former Otter assistant coach Alex Hudson will provide the color.

These games will be the last chance for fans to catch the Otters in The Kelp Bed until 2015. After this week, the Otters will be off until a trip to Sonoma State (Jan. 2) and San Francisco State (Jan. 3). They'll return home to host Cal State L.A. and Cal State Dominguez Hills Jan. 9–10, 2015.
 

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CRUSADER 3–DOT NOTES (2–8 OVERALL): The Crusaders snapped a 6–game losing streak with a 59–57 win over Montana State–Billings on Dec. 6…other victory was an 87–71 win over Notre Dame de Namur at the Western Washington tournament…played Big Sky opponent Idaho State tough before falling 69–57 Saturday evening…Erik Kinney, a transfer from Cal State Bakersfield, leads four Crusaders averaging in double figures at 12.8 ppg…Kinney is one of four NCAA Division I transfers on the NNU roster…Senior center Kevin Rima chips in 11.3 ppg and a team–high 7.5 rpg…after meeting the Otters, NNU will conclude its California trip at Dominican University Saturday afternoon.

WHEN LAST WE MET: The Crusaders overcame 23 points from Devoughn Lamont and 18 rebounds from Richard Jenkins to earn an 80–72 win in Nampa, Id. on Nov. 19, 2005. Mesut Ademoglu had a monster game for NNU, finishing with 28 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals.

WHEN LAST WE PLAYED: The Otters certainly feel that they let one slip away as a late second half spurt lifted Cal State East Bay to a 77–74 win Saturday night in Hayward. After a sluggish start which saw them fall behind by 12 points late in the first half, the Otters rallied to take a pair of 6–point leads midway through the second half. But a few key turnovers coupled with untimely poor free–throw shooting allowed the Pioneers to regain traction and hold on for the win. Evan Zeller played through foul trouble all evening to lead CSUMB with 19 points before fouling out with 5:14 remaining.

THIS DATE IN OTTER HISTORY I: Led by three blocks from Davion Berry, the Otters totaled eight blocked shots in an 80–54 win over Menlo College on Dec. 18, 2009. The eight blocks still rank No. 2 on the Otter team list for blocks in a game.

THIS DATE IN OTTER HISTORY II: The 26 point final margin in that win over Menlo stood for three seasons as the largest margin in the Rob Bishop era of CSUMB basketball (see page 3).

WHEN Z COMES FIRST: Sophomore guard Evan Zeller reclaimed the CCAA scoring lead after Saturday's 19–point effort at East Bay. He enters the week leading the conference at 16.9 points per game. Cal Poly Pomona's Terrence Drisdom (16.85 ppg) is nipping at his heels.

DOUBLE THE FUN: With 19 points at East Bay, Zeller has now scored in double figures in all eight games to start the season. In case you're wondering, Devoughn Lamont is the only player in Otter history to score in double figures in every game of a season, turning the trick 29 times in 2005–06. Since then, Alex Fertig has the longest streak of double figure games to start a season. He accomplished the feat in the first 10 games last season.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS: The Otters own a 4–1 record in home games in the week leading up to Christmas during the Rob Bishop era. They'll have two chances to improve on that mark this week with games vs. Northwest Nazarene (Dec. 18) and Cal State East Bay (Dec. 20).

LENDING A HAND: Patrick Lefiti's seven assists against Cal Baptist were the most by an Otter since Brandon Cole dished eight in a win over Cal State East Bay on Dec. 30, 2012.

OTTERS AMONG THE CCAA LEADERS: In addition to Evan Zeller leading the scoring race, several other Otters appear in the CCAA's Top 10 lists to start the week. They include: FG%: No. 3 Isaiah Smith (60.0); *3PT%: No. 5 Evan Zeller (41.1); FT%: No. 2 Evan Zeller (88.9); REBOUNDS: No. 4 Greg Anderson (6.8 rpg); ASSISTS: No. 8 Evan Zeller (3.4 apg), No. 9 Patrick Lefiti (3.3 apg).  *Min. 2.0 made per game

No. 10 WITH A BULLET: At his current pace, Alex Fertig should move up two places on the CSUMB career scoring list by the end of the week. He needs 13 points to catch Augie Johnston in the No. 9 spot (848). Jay Demaestri (2003–06) is just three points ahead of Johnston at 851.