Roadrunners fall to Stanford in foul-filled contest

Fans of offense may hope they never see the Cal State Bakersfield men’s basketball play team at Kaiser Permanente Arena again.

The Roadrunners were held scoreless for the opening 5:18, then failed to hit a field goal for nearly eight minutes to close out the first half in a 63-50 loss to Stanford in an ugly, foul-filled game on Monday.

Despite the early scoring struggles, the Roadrunners still held multiple leads in the first half behind a valiant defensive effort. But a 10-1 Cardinal run during CSUB’s second five-plus minute scoring drought of the half gave them the lead for good.

The Roadrunners shot just 16-for-59 on the night, including a 6-of-25 performance in the first half when they had nearly as many fouls (18) as points (22).

A total of 56 fouls, including 35 on CSUB, kept the game from having any sort of flow.

CSUB was able to get within seven midway through the second half, but the Cardinal responded with six consecutive made field goals to pull away.

Justin Edler-Davis accounted for half of CSUB’s first-half points and finished with a team-high 13.

Taze Moore added 11 while De’Monte Buckingham had 10 and came just one rebound shy of recording a double-double.

Buckingham also had three steals for a defense that forced 21 turnovers, marking the third game in a row the Roadrunners took the ball away at least 20 times.

The game held many similarities to CSUB’s season opener, a 53-47 loss to Santa Clara, which was also played Kaiser Permanente Arena.

In that loss, the Roadrunners were held without a point for a period of 12:58 in the first half.

The Roadrunners (3-3) have just one day of rest before traveling to Pepperdine for their final non-conference game of the season at 3 p.m. Wednesday.