Las Vegas is a city that advertises itself as being fun but for the CSUB men's basketball trip this trip was nothing more than a work trip. Their sole focus as it has been all season long was to win a WAC tournament-their first round opponent Chicago State, though winless in WAC play, proved to be a grind.
Seniors Kevin Mays and Aly Ahmed were introduced before the game to applause as they earned first team WAC honors.
CSUB was in command early but just before the buzzer would sound for the end of the first half, Delundre Dixon’s basket kept the Cougars close. Going into the break the Runners lead by just five.
But the second half saw more from Aly Ahmed. The highlight, a spinning lay-in off the glass plus the foul.
Later when Ahmed is doubled he hands off to Jaylin Airington who takes off for just his third career dunk.
CSUB takes care of business in round one winning 79-57. “We had this advantage (size) on defense and offense," said Ahmed who finished with 16 points. "The only mismatch would be me. I was the biggest one out there.”
After the game head coach Rod Barnes was clear about the team's goals. “There’s a lot of expectation that we put on ourselves and there’s a lot of expectation that people have on us," he said. "Most of our fans would expect us to win the tournament so-they didn’t follow us over here to win a semi final game.”
So the semi finals are set for both the men and women. Both are appearing in their third straight semi final but the last two times both teams lost. The women are scheduled to play UTRGV at 2:30 P.M. while the men will play Seattle U at 8:30 P.M.
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