OTTERS vs. LUMBERJACK HIGHLIGHTS

SEASIDE, Calif. — Six–man Cal State Monterey Bay nearly completed an epic comeback Saturday night, rallying from 19 points down in the final 14 minutes before falling two points short in a 72–70 loss to visiting Humboldt State in The Kelp Bed.

Sophomore big men Gregg Polosky (San Ramon Valley HS) and Julien Ducree (Rancho Cucamonga HS) led the way with career nights. Polosky scored a career–high 20 points while Ducree grabbed a career–high 14 rebounds.

The Otters trailed by just four at the break, 36–32, but Humboldt needed less than four minutes to expand its advantage to double digits at 46–34. CSUMB trailed 55–36 with 13:40 remaining when it began chipping away, closing to within 66–65 before the Lumberjacks made six free throws in the final 20 seconds to pull out the win.
 

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THE GAME WAS STATISTICALLY OVER WHEN… A Tyras Rattle pair of free throws made it 72–67 with 2.1 seconds to play.

SOLID AT THE STRIPE… Saturday night, for the third time this month, the Otters set a school record at the free–throw line. This time the Otters knocked down 19–of–20 free–throw attempts (95.0 percent) to break the school record of 89.5 percent (17–of–19) set at Cal State Dominguez Hills one week ago (Jan. 20). That broke the previous mark of 85.7 percent (18–of–21) set Jan. 5 versus UC San Diego.

CAREER NIGHTS… The following Otters set personal career highs with their efforts Saturday night: Gregg Polosky scored 20 points (previous high was 14 at Humboldt State on Dec. 31, 2016); Julien Ducree pulled down 14 rebounds (previous high was 13 versus UCSD (Jan. 5); Joe Covarrubias scored 15 points (previous high was 10 vs. Central Washington on Nov. 12, 2016); and Jonquis Bouyea passed five assists (previous high was four Cal State San Marcos on Jan. 7).

LEADERS OF THE RAFT… POINTS: Gregg Polosky 20; REBOUNDS: Julien Ducree 14; ASSISTS: Jonquis Bouyea 5; BLOCKS: Julien Ducree 3; STEALS: Matt Bejsovec 2.

THE LAST WORD… We made some good strides tonight. I'm proud of our effort. We could have rolled when we got down 19 and we got it back to two points. That's all I can ask for." – CSUMB Head Coach Rob Bishop THEY'VE GOT NEXT… The Otters hits the road for a pair of games in Southern California next weekend. The trip starts with a 7:30 p.m. tip at UC San Diego on Friday, Feb. 3.