CSU Bakersfield defeated Seattle University, 79-52, Saturday night in a Western Athletic Conference men’s collegiate basketball game at KeyArena.
Zack Moore (Bellevue, Wash.) came off the bench and hit three three-pointers as he led the Redhawks with 11 points, while Jadon Cohee (Langley, B.C.) finished with 10 points, four rebounds, and three assists. Seattle U made 41.9 percent of its field goal attempts after halftime as well as 76.9 percent of its free throw chances throughout the night.
CSU Bakersfield (13-5, 3-0 WAC) opened the game with a 12-2 scoring run over the first six minutes. The Roadrunners extended their advantage with a 19-3 scoring run, starting with consecutive three-pointers from Dedrick Basile and capped by five straight points from Damiyne Durham.
Seattle U closed its deficit a little bit late in the first half with an 8-2 scoring run, but the Roadrunners still held a 39-17 lead at halftime and then scored the first eight points of the second half, featuring three-pointers from Basile and Durham. CSUB scored nine unanswered points, five of them by Basile, to take its biggest lead of the night at 58-24 halfway through the second half.
Later in the half, the Redhawks scored eight unanswered points, punctuated by back-to-back three-pointers by Brendan Westendorf (Auburn, Wash.) and Moore, but the Roadrunners kept Seattle U from moving any closer by going 7-for-10 from the free throw line down the stretch.
“We did not prepare like we should have, and we did not play with the energy and pop we needed to,” Seattle U head coach Cameron Dollar said. “We will be better prepared the next time we play them.”
Basile led the Roadrunners with a career-high 27 points, shooting 10-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-10 from behind the three-point line. Aly Ahmed contributed 13 points, Kevin Mays pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds, Justin Pride dished out eight assists, and Justin Hollins finished with six blocked shots.
CSUB shot 51 percent (26-of-51) from the field and 70.4 percent (19-of-27) from behind the three-point line. The Roadrunners won the rebounding battle, 38-31, and scored 25 points off 18 Seattle U turnovers.
Seattle University (7-10, 1-2 WAC) continues its three-game homestand Thursday, Jan. 21, with a rematch of last March’s WAC Tournament final against New Mexico State starting at 7 p.m. at KeyArena. The game will be broadcast on 770 AM KTTH starting with the pregame show shortly before tipoff, and tickets for all remaining Seattle U home games are available through Ticketmaster and the KeyArena Box Office during normal business hours.