Our offense completely falls apart down the stretch in Hawaii and we lose by 17.
We blow a 15 point lead against Cal Poly but win 61-59 on a
Joseph Velarde buzzer-beater. About damn time something goes our way. Velarde scores 21 with a steal,
Thomas Hadden does his god things with 16 boards, 5 blocks, and 4 steals, but
Winston Reyes is inexplicably awarded PotG with 17 points and 2 blocks. Yeah, I don't get it either. But a W is a W is a W.
Reinaldo "Gem" Gonzalez comes back early at 82% and we sprint out to a 9-0 lead at CSU-Fullerton, winning in OT as Gem hits a shot with just 2 second left on the clock to take the 90-89 win. He scored 10 in his return with a block and 3 steals, and
Joseph Velarde scores 26. It's
Winston Reyes with a deserved PotG this time at 23 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal, while
Thomas Hadden has 12 boards, 5 blocks, and a steal.
With a chance to get to .500 in Big West play, we take full advantage, crushing UC-Irvine by almost 20.
Dennis Luther wakes up for 17 points, 6 assists, and 5 steals to win the top honors,
Joseph Velarde has 12 and a swipe,
Gem scores 22 with 3 steals, and
Winston Reyes produces 17/9/1.
It's probably too late to get into title contention, but it's nice to finally see what this team might have been. Such as 25 points, a block, and a steal from PotG
Winston Reyes in a 69-59 victory over UC-Davis. 17 points, a block, and a steal from
Gem, 15 points and 6 steals by
Joseph Velarde, and 10 rebounds and 2 blocks by
Thomas Hadden.
Joseph Velarde sinks the final two free throws in a road upset of UC-Riverside. He scored 21 inefficiently but had 3 steals.
Thomas Hadden has 14 rebounds, 4 blocks, and a steal, but the real talk is PotG
Gem and
Winston Reyes each scoring 18 with 6 rebounds. Gem's 4 assists were the differentiator.
And of course the worst team in the Big West kicks our asses from open to end to end our win streak.
Effing Long Beach State, man.
9 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, 4 steals is good enough for
Thomas Hadden to win PotG as we take out our frustrations on Hawaii and lock down the expected .500 in conference play. 12/11/1/1 for
Gem on a bad shooting night. Our offense comes from
Raphael Taylor (15/7 off the bench), 14 and 3 steals from
Joseph Velarde, and 10 bench points from
Geoffrey Blodgett.
Bad FT shooting nearly blows it against UCSB in a game we dominated for most of it. Check the grim stats from the line:
Code:
Cal State Northridge 80, UC Santa Barbara 75
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UC Santa Barbara (14-13, 8-8):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Carl Robeson C 18 1-4 0-0 2 6 2 5 2
Alfonzo Ramsey PF 16 4-8 4-4 2 4 1 5 12
Daniel Burkey SF 20 1-6 0-0 1 2 2 1 2
Bert Johanson SG 32 5-8 2-2 0 0 2 2 12
Thomas Tucker PG 35 6-12 2-2 4 5 7 2 16
Allen Roberts PF 29 4-8 0-0 2 8 3 1 8
Joe Duran SF 25 6-9 2-3 0 2 2 5 17
James Marshall SG 3 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Scott Laboy SF 2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 2
William Jimerson PF 16 0-3 0-0 1 6 0 0 0
Dino Dick PG 2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 2
Daniel Eskridge C 1 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 0 2
Turnovers: 13 (C.Robeson 2, A.Ramsey 1, D.Burkey 1,
T.Tucker 3, A.Roberts 2, J.Duran 1, J.Marshall 2,
S.Laboy 1)
Blocked Shots: 3 (D.Burkey 1, S.Laboy 1, W.Jimerson 1)
Steals: 4 (D.Burkey 1, B.Johanson 2, J.Duran 1)
3P FGs: 5-14 (D.Burkey 0-1, B.Johanson 0-1, T.Tucker
2-5, A.Roberts 0-2, J.Duran 3-4, J.Marshall 0-1)
Cal State Northridge (17-11, 10-7):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Thomas Hadden C 31 1-3 3-4 0 7 1 2 5
Winston Reyes PF 30 7-9 3-5 3 8 0 0 17
Reinaldo Gonzalez SF 25 6-9 3-8 0 5 3 4 15
Dennis Luther SG 31 4-7 1-2 1 4 2 1 11
Joseph Velarde PG 29 7-10 2-4 0 2 5 3 17
Geoffrey Blodgett PG 20 1-5 1-2 0 0 2 2 3
Raphael Taylor PF 12 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 1 2
Clint Monger PG 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
P. Faulvarque SF 10 1-5 0-0 1 1 0 0 3
Frank Gilmore C 7 2-3 0-1 1 1 0 0 4
Gregory Lau SF 3 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 3
Turnovers: 9 (T.Hadden 3, W.Reyes 1, R.Gonzalez 1,
J.Velarde 1, G.Blodgett 1, R.Taylor 1, F.Gilmore 1)
Blocked Shots: 10 (T.Hadden 5, W.Reyes 3, F.Gilmore 2)
Steals: 7 (R.Gonzalez 1, D.Luther 3, J.Velarde 1,
G.Blodgett 2)
3P FGs: 5-11 (D.Luther 2-4, J.Velarde 1-3, P.Faulvarque
1-3, G.Lau 1-1)
Player of Game: PF Winston Reyes (CSNTH)
I'm worried for our offense next year. But at least we have our second winning season in the Big West and second winning record - both in three years.
We nab our second recruit.
Code:
#55 PF Albert Ragsdale
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-7
Weight: 229
High School: San Rafael High School
Hometown: San Rafael, CA
GPA: 2.35
Test Score: 1040
Rating: *
Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 59 35 27 0 27 50 28 22 18 11 32 71 21 47 59 22
Potential: A D D F D C C D C D B A
Season Stats:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PTS OREB REB AST TOS A/T STL BLK PFS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.2 2.4 7.0 2.4 2.9 0.83 2.4 4.1 2.7
Shooting Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% 3PM 3PA 3P%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.4 9.9 .548 1.4 2.5 .560 0.0 0.0 .000
Recruiting Notes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qualified: Yes
Committed to Cal State Northridge
Rankings: None
High School Awards: None
Top 5 Schools: *Cal State Northridge, Santa Clara
Love his turnover generation. Can't rebound or play D but beggars can't be choosers at this stage. Red/Green so a steal of a find perhaps.
I *think* we have third place locked up even without beating Pacific, but I'd love the win to make it not a tiebreaker issue. 15/8/1/1 by
Gem and 17 points with block and steal by PotG
Winston Reyes get us there. 11 boards, 2 blocks, 2 steals by
Thomas Hadden, too, as we lead 15-0 and never look like blowing it.
But you know what I forgot to also ask for? No bleeping injuries.
The Butterfly Man is out 39 days, Frank Gilmore 16. Of course that happens. Of course.
Big West Conference Tournament
vs UC-Davis 12-17 (9-9)
So of course we have to completely change our gameplan and switch to an Inside focus for the rest of the tournament because of the frigging injuries. We'll probably get beat now too, because our SF depth is destroyed. 16 points, 6 rebounds, a steal, and a block for
Gem, 11 points each for
Winston Reyes and
Joseph Velarde, the latter with 3 steals, but it's
Thomas Hadden's 10 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 2 steals with his elite defense that gets the nod in an ugly, ugly 47-37 victory.
@ UC-Irvine 15-15 (13-5)
Hell of a season for the Anteaters in shocking everyone by finishing second in the Big West. BET THEY DIDN'T HAVE AN ASSLOAD OF INJURIES! They did, however, lose
Teddy Shores, their best player, in the opening round win.
It's not enough. Our depth is too ruined and we lose by 10, shooting just 35% from the field in a 62-72 loss. One win shy of our first 20 win season.
Tournaments
UC-Riverside is a 13 seed in the West, drawing 4 seed
Iowa. The Highlanders fall to the Hawkeyes by 9.
1
Louisville vs 2
Kentucky and 1
Nebraska vs 2
UConn in the Final Four.
NIT is 2 seed Butler vs 4 seed Ole Miss, the Rebels adding the banner 72-69.
Title game is Louisville-UConn in an all-Big East matchup and the Huskies win their second championship 88-80.
Three guys are unhappy about playing time, including PG
Clint Monger and PF/CE
Truman Crain. Yikes on all the bikes.