California State University East Bay

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California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

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Men’s Basketball Closes Out Season with CCAA Honors

The Pioneers finished with a better
record this season than the
previous two seasons combined.

The 2011-12 basketball season has officially come to a close for the CSU East Bay men’s basketball team, with a loss to Chico State last Friday night.

Chico, which entered the final game of the season having already clinched the number one seed in the conference, handed the Pioneers their final loss of the season by a score of 61-47.

Entering the final two games of the season, the Pioneers were still alive in the conference with a chance at the final spot in the playoffs. However, a loss against CSU Stanislaus last Thursday night by a score of 83-86, officially eliminated the Pioneers from playoff contention.

The Pioneers finished the year with a 10-16 overall record and an 8-14 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) record.

“Though frustrated with our record, I feel we had a very successful season defeating Humboldt when they were number eight in the Nation, Pomona when they were number six in the Nation at their place, defeating UC San Diego twice when we hadn’t come close to beating them in two years, defeating Sonoma for the third year in a row, getting our first win against a very athletic San Bernardino and sweeping Monterey Bay after they swept us last year,” said head coach of the men’s basketball team, Will Biggs.

“There were many games that could have gone either way in the last few minutes. We were extremely competitive all year and pleased, but not satisfied, to have come in ninth after being picked to come in last,” continued Biggs.

Among other highlights this season are All-CCAA honors given to two Pioneers, junior Mark Samuels and freshman Jacari Whitfield.

Whitfield was named this year’s CCAA Freshman of The Year, after an impressive first season with the Pioneers, finishing fifth in the conference in assists, seventh in assist/turnover ratio and tenth in three-pointers made.

For the first time in CSUEB history, two Pioneer players received Freshman of The Year honors in the same year with counterpart Micah Walker from the Pioneer women’s team also taking home the Freshmen of the Year award this season.

Samuels was named to the 2012 All-CCAA second team after leading the Pioneers in scoring this season. Samuels was the fourth leading scorer in the conference averaging 15.1 points per game, fourth in assists, 14th in field-goal percentage and 17th in rebounds.

“Our most consistent players all year were Mark Samuels and Roshun Wynne,” said Biggs. “We had other strong individual efforts, but night in and night out you could argue that our backcourt was the toughest combination in the conference.”

Wynne was the second leading scorer for the Pioneers this season averaging 14 points per game and led the team in rebounds, to close out his last season with the Pioneers.

With the CCAA honors, the Pioneers end the year on a good note looking towards next year. They will return the majority of their roster from this year with the exception of Wynne and senior Adam Watts.

The coaching staff will seek to fill in the talent that Wynne and Watts contributed to the team over the offseason.

“We need to improve in every area: strength, maturity, quickness, fundamentals and most importantly I need to recruit some size that will complement our current strength, which is guard play,” said Coach Biggs.

This year, in one season, the team produced more wins than they had in their previous two seasons, with a 5-39 record for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons combined.

A much-improved team from a season ago, the Pioneers entered the season on no one’s radar but quickly found ways to win and compete in the CCAA.

“I thought we competed every night,” said Biggs. “We were small, but definitely had a way to play and really stayed true to our game plan all year. We struggled on the defensive glass but our quickness was our strength and I thought we played to that strength every night.”

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California State University East Bay
Men’s Basketball Closes Out Season with CCAA Honors