Box Score
LOS ANGELES – Cal State L.A.'s men's basketball team picked up a California Collegiate Athletic Association victory over conference newcomer Cal State East Bay Sunday, but it certainly wasn't easy.
The Golden Eagles had to survive some major second-half runs by the Pioneers before completing a 72-67 victory in the Eagles Nest. Cal State L.A. (7-2, 3-1 CCAA) won for the sixth time in its last seven games and won its third straight conference contest.
Chris Fields led the way for the Golden Eagles with a season-high 25 points and five rebounds.
Dwayne Jones added 16 points and five rebounds, while
Carl Hoffman had 11 points and four rebounds.
Cal State East Bay (3-7, 0-5 CCAA) was led by Adam Green, who poured in 19 points. Prince Ray Pope and Jawaan Rubin had 10 points each for the Otters.
Cal State L.A. shot 44 percent for the game and knocked down five of 11 attempts from behind the 3-point arc. Cal State East Bay fired up 29 attempts from 3-point range, making 11 for a 37.9 percent, the same that the Pioneers had for their 66 field-goal attempts in the game.
Cal State L.A., for the second straight game, had a big edge on the boards, winning that battle, 46-34. The Golden Eagles were 19-of-30 from the free-throw line, while Cal State East Bay was 6-of-9.
Fields, the leading scorer in the conference, was efficient in the win. He made nine of his 16 field-goal attempts, half of his four 3-point tries and five of his eight free-throw attempts.
Leland Jones had a strong game for the Golden Eagles with eight points and eight rebounds, while
Mark Dorsey had nine rebounds – five on the offensive end – and four points.
Cal State East Bay, with an active defense and its barrage of 3-point attempts, kept the game close throughout. The Pioneers fell behind by nine points early in the contest, 18-9, but battled their way back and took a four-point lead, 31-27, after a 3-pointer by Pope with three minutes left in the half.
After another 3-pointer by Pope broke a 33-33 tie late in the half, a pair of free throws by
Dwayne Jones cut the Cal State East Bay lead to 36-35 at halftime.
Cal State L.A. took the lead for good after a 3-pointer by Fields gave the Golden Eagles a 44-42 lead with 16:27 remaining. That started a 11-0 run that included a 3-pointer by
Dwayne Jones, a basket by Hoffman and another 3-pointer by Jones that opened up a 52-42 lead for the Golden Eagles with 14 minutes to play.
Cal State East Bay, though, came back with back-to-back 3-pointers by Rubin and Green to cut it to 52-48 and the Pioneers got to within one point, 56-55, with 8:35 remaining.
That was as close as the Pioneers would get, although Cal State East Bay still trailed by only three points, 65-62, with 1:59 left after a 3-pointer by Rubin. Fields, though, took over from there. He hit a jumper to boost the lead to three and added three free throws in the next two possessions to stretch the lead to 70-62 with 30 seconds left.
Cal State L.A. will return to action on Wednesday with a road game at Cal State Dominguez Hills before a pair of home games next Friday and Saturday against Cal State Monterey Bay and San Francisco State.
