By Esteban Ramirez
Sports Editor

It was an all-familiar scene for the CSU Bakersfield men’s basketball team as it witnessed a late lead disappear against Seattle University at the Icardo Center on Jan. 31 but this time the result was different.
CSUB (8-14, 3-3 Western Athletic Conference) had a four-point lead with 18 seconds left in the game against Seattle (10-10, 3-3), and the ’Runners once again were unable to close it out and appeared to be on the verge of another collapse. However, thanks to stingy defense and clutch free-throw shooting CSUB responded in overtime and won 71-61 in a WAC game.
“I thought it was a hard-fought game,” CSUB coach Rod Barnes said. “I’m proud of our kids. I think one of the last games we played in that we lost we basically collapsed in the final five minutes. I thought tonight we were down the last five minutes, and we really got aggressive. I thought the five minutes of the overtime were maybe our best defensive five minutes that we have played.”
After a three pointer by Seattle redshirt-senior guard Emerson Murray gave the Redhawks 57-54 early in overtime, it was all CSUB from then on. The ’Runners outscored the Redhawks 17-4 after that and shot 11 of 12 from the charity stripe in the extra period.
It was the third straight victory for CSUB, which ties a season high. The ’Runners have also moved into a tie for third in the WAC.
“I thought it was a great team effort,” Barnes said. “I thought we had guys that really defended their best guys and did a great job. We had guys make big plays when we needed to have big plays.”
It was a close game early on as they went into halftime tied 29-29, but to start the second half the ’Runners’ offense struggled to get going and went 2 of 11 in the first 12 minutes of the half. The Redhawks behind sophomore forward William Powell, who finished with a team-high 16 points, were able to build a 48-41 lead with 7:35 left in the game.
“I thought there were times in the game where we were just not defending like we need to,” Barnes said. “They had a stretch of three straight possessions that I told them that they made a layup. I just told them we are too good of a defensive team, and we got to close up the middle.”
Thanks to their defense the ’Runners responded with a 12-0 run late in the second half to take a 53-48 lead with 3:39 left in the game. It was their biggest lead of the second half.
With 54 seconds and Seattle down 53-48, the Redhawks got back in the game thanks to redshirt-senior guard Isiah Umipig drawing a shooting foul behind the three-point line.Umipig made all three. After both teams made one free throw to take the score to 54-52, Seattle was able to tie the game and sent it to overtime with a layup from Powell.
Junior center Aly Ahmed led CSUB with 21 points, including 17 in the second half and overtime and added 12 rebounds. Junior forward Kevin Mays finished with 10 points, including seven in overtime and also added 12 rebounds.
“It was tough,” Ahmed said. “The main thing is we just kept our heads straight and we kept thinking about the win. There were moments where we could’ve [held] our heads down but we didn’t. We stayed focused and got the win.”
The ’Runners were able to slow down the Redhawks two best scorers in Umipig and redshirt-senior guard Jarell Flora. Umipig averages 17.9 points per game and Flora averages 14.5 per game. CSUB held Flora to nine points and Umipig to five points.
“That was their bread and butter,” Mays said on the team slowing down Flora and Umipig. “A lot of their offense is ran through them two. They are taking over 50 percent of their shots, so it was big that our guards contained those two guys. That was huge.”