SAN DIEGO - The Point Loma men's basketball team fed off the energy of the large Homecoming crowd to play their best game of the season and earn a 76-61 victory over Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday, Nov. 19.
 
Josh Rodriguez led the way with a season-high 26 points. He added seven rebounds and five assists.
 
"I thought Josh had his best game of the year," said Point Loma head coach Ryan Looney. "He is pretty dynamic on offense and I am excited to continue to coach him because I don't think he has even scratched the surface yet. He can still learn to be a better point guard, run the team better and be a better leader, but he was fantastic tonight."
 
Vince Boumann added a double-double with 19 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. This is the first double-double for Boumann since putting on the Green & Gold. His efforts helped PLNU dominate the Otters on the glass 54-28. Twenty-three of those rebounds came on the offensive glass for Point Loma as it outscored CSUMB 26-4 on second chance points. Skyler White came off the bench to knock down three 3-pointers and post a career-best 11 points in just 11 minutes.
 
Point Loma built a 43-27 lead at halftime and pushed it up to 19 points early in the second half, but saw their advantage reduced all the way to seven points (66-59) with just over three minutes left. That is when the Sea Lions went back to their bread-and-butter on offense of Rodriguez and Boumann to close out the game. That combo scored eight of the final 10 points for the Sea Lions, and Rodriguez assisted on the other basket to Zach Burnham.
 
"When we got the ball into Boumann in the post I thought we were very efficient offensively, but when he went down (with fouls) things changed a bit for us," Looney explained.  "They got it within seven and our guys dug in. I was proud that our guys made some free throws and got enough stops to pull it out."
 
Looney was also very impressed with the crowd in his first Point Loma Homecoming contest.
 
"It was an electric environment especially early on and our players fed off that," he said. "It was an unbelievable atmosphere. I loved it and can't wait till we play the game again next year.
 
"I would like to see it like this at every home game, and hopefully in time we can make that happen," Looney added. "I hope we can continue to generate more and more interest from our fans and the community too so we can have this environment every game."
 
Kevin Warren came off the bench with 22 points to lead the Otters. He was 4-of-6 from 3-point range and 7-of-15 from the field overall.
 
The Point Loma men's basketball team will now head back on the road for their fifth away game in six contests this season. PLNU will be at Azusa, Calif., next weekend to face Cal State LA on Friday, Nov. 25 and Seattle Pacific on Saturday, Nov. 26. Both games will tip at 5:30 p.m.