Joseph Malone made a successful debut as a Warrior. After sitting out the season opener last Friday with an injury, Malone came off the bench to score 17 points to lead Cal State Stanislaus over Texas A&M International.
The Warriors also got 16 points from Brett Sayad as Stanislaus took care of the Dustdevils, 85-77, at the Fresno Pacific Thanksgiving Shootout on Friday. Cal State Stanislaus improved to 2-0 on the young season.
Malone, an El Camino College transfer, scored 10 of his points on 4-for-4 shooting in the second half to help the Warriors. Sayad also scored 10 of his totals in the second half as the Warriors shot a sparkling 67 percent from the field to win coming from behind.
Cal State Stanislaus trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half but a 12-4 run, highlighted by a pair of Sayad three-pointers, cut the A&M lead to 35-33 at the break.
The Dustdevils got out to an 8-point lead early in the second half, but Stanislaus cut the deficit down to one again on a pair of Sayad triples to make it 51-50 with 12 minutes to go. A Malone layup moments later would give the Warriors a lead they would never relinquish. Stanislaus held a lead as large as eight with 4:00 to play before the final count.
Reggie Jones also chipped in 13 points while Marcus Walters and Vincent Fuller each added nine to contribute to the Stanislaus scoring. In the end, the Warriors shot 52 percent from the floor with nine three-pointers. Sayad finished with four treys and Malone had three. CSUS also won the battle on the charity line connecting on 24 of 31 tries.
Texas A&M International, a Division II program from the Heartland Conference, falls to 3-3. The Dustdevils were led by Ryan McLucas with 17 points with five three-pointers.
Cal State Stanislaus will take on Fresno Pacific, the host of the Thanksgiving Shootout, today at 4 p.m. at the FPU Events Center. The FPU Sunbirds beat UC Merced on Friday to improve to 5-1.