In a dominant performance, the Cal State Stanislaus men's basketball team stay perfect inside Fitzpatrick Arena this season after a 69-47 win over Sonoma State Saturday night.
Marcus Bell was a beast inside in more ways than scoring. To go with his 15 points — and he did so with a 5-for-13 shooting night — he grabbed 17 rebounds with five blocked shots and two steals. Rob Walters also earned another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
For the first in program history the Warriors improved to 10-0 at home. Only the 2002-03 team had posted a better home record when that squad went 12-3 for the season. The 2000-01 team was 10-3 in Warrior Arena.
The current version of the Warriors improved to 13-5 overall and 9-5 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association in a two-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings with Cal State L.A.
Front-runner and No. 7 ranked Cal State San Bernardino will be the Warriors' foe next Friday as Stanislaus tries to improve to 11-0 at home on homecoming night in front of the expected largest crowd of the season.
Saturday's win came relatively easy with Bell and Walters controlling the inside game while Clinton Tremelling was nailing three-pointers. For the second straight night, Tremelling was sharp from long range, going 4-for-5 behind the half-circle to finish with a season-high 16 points. He was 3-for-4 in 3's on Friday against San Francisco State.
The Warriors had a double-digit lead halfway into the first half when Alek Carlson nailed a trey with 9:32 to go to make it 21-11. The lead would bounce up and down between five and 12 points until Stanislaus really took control in the second half.
Sonoma State (3-15, 2-12 CCAA) had cut the Warriors' lead down as long as five points six minutes into the second half, but after a Bell free throw, Tremelling hit one of his triples to jump-start the offense.
Stanislaus went on a 13-3 run to build a 16-point lead en route to the big win. Another three-pointer — this time by Taylor Bell at 2:06 left — extended the Warrior lead into the 20s for the first time.
The Warriors finished with seven three-pointers, on 15 attempts, to balance the post-game. Bell and Walter combined to shoot 9-for-21 for 26 points and 27 rebounds.