While the rest of the students and campus faculty and staff were enjoying their winter break, the CSU East Bay men’s basketball team was hard at work.

Despite valiant efforts, East Bay dropped five of their last six games, with their last victory coming against Notre Dame de Namur with a score of 77-66 in front of a home crowd on Dec. 11.

The Pioneers have a record of 1-5 in the CCAA conference and 3-7 record overall.

“It’s been a long season,” said Coach Will Biggs. “The CCAA in men’s basketball is the best Division II in the country and we’re having trouble getting a win. We’re getting beat on the boards, we’re turning the ball over way too much and our overall play has been very inconsistent.”

For this young basketball squad, it’s simply a matter of putting all phases of the game together and making it work.

“We play pretty solid defense, but offensively we don’t execute well,” said Coach Biggs.

“In this conference, we’re young, we’re learning and things have got to go perfectly for us,” said Biggs. “In almost every game there is a breakdown for us that turns out to be the difference. It just seems like it’s something new every game.”

With the season running through Feb. 25, there are plenty more games left to play and time to turn the season around. So how do The Pioneers rebound and get the second half of their season off to a good start? Focus is the key, according to Biggs and his coaching staff.

“We need to lace them up everyday at practice and work hard,” said Biggs. “It’s just a matter of trying to keep everything in perspective and focus on the things that we need to improve on that maybe push us over the edge and get on a good roll.”

The Pioneers travel to Stanislaus and Chico State before returning home to open a four-game home stand starting on Jan. 13 against Cal State Dominguez Hills.