BOX SCORE
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — It appears the young Cal State Monterey Bay men's basketball team is still finding its sea legs. Playing its third game in as many days—and coming off Friday's solid 20–point victory over Colorado Christian—the Otters ran out of gas down the stretch in a 92–77 loss to Oklahoma Panhandle State to close play at the GCI Alaska Invitational Saturday evening in The Patty Center.

The result left both teams records at 2–2.

Freshman guard Alex Fertig (Fresno/Buchanan HS) led all scorers with 21 points, his second–consecutive 20–point game. He finished as the tournament's leading scorer with 56 points (18.7 points per game) and earned All–Tournament honors.

The Otters also got 14 points apiece from seniors Derrick Anderson (Pittsburg HS) and Brandon Ward (Riverside/Woodcrest HS), but the rest of the roster went 7–for–25 from the field.

CSUMB trailed just 53–49 eight minutes into the second half and it was still a six–point game at 60–54 inside the 10–minute mark when OPSU began to pull away. The Otters went 1–for–6 from the floor with three turnovers over the next six minutes to allow the Aggies to put some distance between the teams.

OPSU scored its final 13 points from the free–throw line to keep any CSUMB comeback hopes in the harbor.

“We need to really improve our zone offense,” said CSUMB Head Coach Rob Bishop. “The score will make you think I'm crazy but, our defensive effort was good enough to win. We were pressing so much on offense that we made mistakes trying to make plays. Turnovers are a big area of concern right now. We were better tonight but still need to clean it  up.”

CSUMB returns home to The Kelp Bed to celebrate Thanksgiving weekend by hosting Pac West Conference foe Dominican University Saturday (Nov. 24).

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2012 GCI ALASKA INVITATIONAL ALL–TOURNAMENT TEAM
Alex Fertig, Cal State Monterey Bay
Lance Vesper, Colorado Christian
Bill Lee, Oklahoma Panhandle
Stefan Tica, Alaska
Sergej Pucar, Alaska


Tournament MVP: Pat Voeut, Alaska