LAS VEGAS, Nev.- The CSUB Roadrunners (13-18, 7-7 WAC) open their second Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament as the number-four seed, taking on fifth-seeded Utah Valley (11-18, 5-9 WAC) on Thursday at 2 P.M. at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
The Roadrunners allowed a chance at the second-seed to slip through their fingers after a pair of road losses over the last two weeks, most recently a 74-69 setback at Utah Valley on Saturday night. The 'Runners won the first meeting with the Wolverines 72-69 in Bakersfield on February 5.
“We are fully-aware of what we need to do so it makes that part easy as far as going into tournament play,” said CSUB head coach Rod Barnes. “If we were playing a team we played a few weeks ago we would go back and watch four or five games but we've already put the work in.”
In the last meeting it was Utah Valley three-point shooting that proved to be the difference as the Wolverines converted on 14-of-25 attempts from beyond-the-arc. Zach Nelson led the way for UVU with a career-high 29 points including 7-of-11 from three-point range.
“He just got away from us,” Barnes said of Nelson. “We didn't do a great job of realizing that against us he's a great shooter so we're going to have to stick with him and change our game plan.”
The Roadrunners offense however was able to get back on track as Aly Ahmed (Jr., Alexandria, Egypt, Midland CC) led the way with 17 points and 10 rebounds. CSUB shot 43% from the field and only turned the ball over five times in the loss. Dashawn Richmond (Jr., Staten Island, N.Y., Broward CC) scored 14 points off the bench on 5-of-11 from the field.
The winner of Thursday's game will take on top-seeded New Mexico State on Friday night at 6 P.M.
CSUB went 1-1 in the WAC Tournament in 2014, defeated Chicago State in the first round before falling to eventual-champion New Mexico State in the semifinals.
Barnes says now that all teams are 0-0, the focus shifts in the conference tournament.
“That's something we've been talking about for a couple weeks now as far as staying focused, trying to play well and fixing some of the things we needed to fix to go into this week being really prepared,” he said. “It's been a real focus from this week to next week getting where we need to be, realizing that each team in Vegas is 40 minutes away from their season ending.”
Thursday's game will be carried live on the WAC Digital Network beginning at 2 P.M. It can also be heard on 1230 ESPN beginning at 1:30 P.M. with pregame coverage. Streaming audio is also available on the schedule page of GoRunners.com.
