Senior Writer
The CSU Bakersfield men’s basketball team continues to control the Western Athletic Conference as it finished its final road trip of the regular season beating Utah Valley University 80-71 on Feb. 16 and Seattle University 51-48 on Feb.18.
CSUB (19-7, 10-1 WAC) had its worst shooting night of the season from behind the arc against Seattle U (12-14, 4-7 WAC) as they made just 2 of their 22 three-point shot attempts.
“It was tough out there tonight, it wasn’t one of our better games,” said CSUB head coach Rod Barnes to gorunners.com.
“We were a tired team, we didn’t make free throws, we didn’t make shots but we defended when we needed to defend, we got a big block down there and got a couple plays to close the game.”
CSUB leads the WAC in scoring defense as they allow 62.9 points per game, which is almost 5 points better than the next best team.
Junior center Moataz Aly helped the Roadrunners to their eighth straight win as he scored a layup with 20 seconds left in the game to put CSUB up 50-48. After senior guard Justin Pride made a free throw to make the score 51-48, Aly recorded a steal on the defensive end to seal the win for the Roadrunners.
Despite the close call for the Roadrunners on Saturday, it was the 100th win for Rod Barnes as CSUB head coach.
“I am thankful to God, the administration and all the people that have supported us,” Barnes said to gorunners.com.
“Surely thankful for the coaches and the players that have played in the past to help me to get there. It’s an accomplishment for our program and for our teams that have gone before us.”
CSUB’s game against Utah Valley (11-14, 3-7 WAC) wasn’t as closely contested as the game against Seattle U, but the Roadrunners had their hands full with the Wolverines.
Senior forward Matt Smith led the Roadrunners with 18 points and 6 rebounds.
“It was a team effort tonight, defensively we played well, offensively we have to do a better job, we can’t have that many turnovers, we missed too many free throws,” said Barnes to gorunners.com. “Grateful and thankful for the win tonight, we’ve got to play better if we want to continue to win, but we’ll get it right.”
CSUB shot only 55.2 percent from the free-throw line on 16-of-29 attempts from the charity stripe. The Roadrunners are the worst free-throw shooting team (62 percent) in the WAC.
CSUB will return home to the Icardo Center to face off against the University of Missouri-Kansas City on Thursday at 7 p.m. and against Chicago State University on Saturday at 7 p.m.
