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Warriors earn final tourney berth
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In an amazing display of dominance on both ends of the court, the Warriors left little doubt that they are going CCAA-dancing as they blew out Cal State Monterey Bay, 78-58, Friday night in the Kelp Bed in Seaside.

For the second straight night, the Stanislaus defense limited its opponents as the Warriors completed the regular season campaign 12-14 overall and 10-12 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Their fourth straight road win helped them grabbed the eighth and final berth for the conference tournament.

With Humboldt State beating Cal State L.A. and Chico State losing to San Francisco State Friday night, the Warriors finished in a three-way tie for sixth place in the standings. However, with the three-way tie-breaker rule comparing record versus tied teams, the Warriors would end up as the No. 8 seed in the tournament.

The first round opponent for the Warriors will be regular season champion and No. 3 ranked, Humboldt State (24-2, 20-2 CCAA). That game is scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Lumberjack Arena in Arcata.

Friday night, Reggie Jones led the Warriors with 19 points and the Stanislaus bench came up huge in the season finale to lead the team. The non-starters scored a season-best 45 points to contribute on a night when the team shot 48.3 percent from the field.

On the other end of the court, Cal State Monterey Bay was stifled by the CSUS defense. The Otters shot just 36.5 percent during senior night on home court as they became the 13th team to shoot under 40 percent against CSUS. Stanislaus is now 10-3 in those games this season.

Prince Abidoye led the bench scoring with 11 points and Marcus Lever scored nine and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds. Brett Sayad came off the bench and knocked in eight points while starter Evan Scott also chipped in eight.

The Warriors turned a three-point, 27-24, game at the half into a 10-point advantage just minutes into the second half when Scott slammed in a bucket at 16:50. CSUMB briefly rallied to cut that deficit to five but the Warriors never let the Otters any closer.

Stanislaus stretch the lead to 22 points, 69-47, on a Sayad three-pointer at 4:12 left to play.

CCAA leading scorer Davion Berry led the Otters with 17 points. Berry averaged 25.4 points per game entering the weekend. Warren Freeman chipped in 10 points for CSUMB (9-17, 7-15 CCAA).

The Warriors suddenly became road Warriors over the final two conference road trips with four straight victories after going 0-7 in their first seven games away from Fitzpatrick Arena.

Cal State Stanislaus handed Humboldt State one of its two losses this season on Dec. 4 in Turlock. The teams' match-up on Feb. 3 in Arcata went in favor of the Jacks, 77-67.