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SEASIDE, Calif. -- The Cal State Monterey Bay men's basketball team will put its four-game home winning streak on the line as it closes the 2012 calendar year by hosting CCAA rival Cal State East Bay Sunday (Dec. 30) in The Kelp Bed. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

For ticket information visit the Ticket Information page at OtterAthletics.com.

Fans can listen live on KRXA 540 AM or  listen and watch live online at OtterAthletics.com. Rob Ponce will call the play-by-play with former Otter Ian Hosford handling the color duties.

Click the Gameday Central link for complete pregame, in-game and postgame coverage.

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SCOUTING THE PIONEERS: Like the Otters, Cal State East Bay played one game between their home–and–home series. Unlike the Otters, the Pioneers stumbled to an 82–61 defeat at Dominican University. Senior guard Jason Smith led East Bay with 13 points. Senior forward Jurrell Turner chipped in 12 points and a team–high five rebounds. For the season, junior guard Gabe Kindred leads the team in scoring at 12.3 points per game. Turner is the only other Pioneer in double figures at 11.3 ppg. Senior forward Nick Marshall is East Bay's top rebounder at 5.8 rpg.

WHEN LAST WE MET: The Otters nearly pulled off a comeback for the ages, trimming a 23–point deficit with less than seven minutes remaining to three in an eventual 85–82 loss at Cal State East Bay on Dec. 8. Freshman guard Alex Fertig (Fresno/Buchanan HS) led all scorers with 22 points, his third 20–point game of the season. Sophomore guard Tre Mauldin led three Pioneers in double figures with 15 points.

WHEN LAST WE PLAYED: The Otters enjoyed their return to The Kelp Bed after a four–game roadtrip, coming home to defeat PacWest Conference rival Academy of Art 82–71 on Dec. 15. The game went back and forth for the first 31 minutes before the Otters took the lead for good at 64–62 onan Alex Fertig jumper. Fertig and Derrick Anderson (Pittsburg HS) led the Otters with 13 points apiece. Freshman guard Coley Apsay (Santa Clarita/Canyon HS) added a season–high four steals.

ANOTHER MITCHELL MARK IN HIS SIGHTS: Earlier this month, senior guard Brandon Ward (Riverside/Woodcrest HS) broke Joe Mitchell's CSUMB record for career starts (79 and counting). The Otters have 19 games left in the regular season. Should Ward appear in all of them, he will have 107 career appearances, one behind Joe Mitchell's CSUMB record. He can break the record if the Otters earn a postseason berth.

Also of note, senior center James Albert (San Bernardino/Aquinas HS) is on pace to become the third player ever to appear in 100 games in an Otter uniform.

20 POINTS TO HISTORY: When he led CSUMB with 13 points against Academy of Art on Dec. 15, freshman guard Alex Fertig came up seven points shy of becoming the fourth Otter (and the first Otter freshman) to score 20 or more points in four of the first 10 games of a season. Davion Berry did it five times in 2010–11 (games 2, 4, 6, 9 and 10). The only other Otters to accomplish that feat have been Devoughn Lamont (games 1, 2, 4 and 7 of 2005–06) and Steve Monreal (games 1, 2, 8 and 10 of 2008–09).

THE CHILIAD CLUB: Brandon Ward began the season knocking on the door of CSUMB's exclusive Chiliad Club. His 19 points Nov. 11 versus Pacifica vaulted him from ninth to seventh place with 859 career points. He needs 54 to become the fourth player in Otter history to score 1,000 career points. Matt Dalhamer owns the CSUMB career record with 1,075 points from 1999–2001.

BRRRRRR: Brandon Ward suffered through an unusually cold scoring night in the first meeting with Cal State East Bay on Dec. 8. He went 0–for–7 from the floor and finished with just two points. It was his lowest scoring output since being held to two points against San Francisco State on Nov. 21, 2010, a span of 59 games. In case you're wondering, Ward has been held scoreless just once in his collegiate career. UC San Diego shut him out during his freshman season on Feb. 20, 2010.

REVVING THEIR ENGINES: The Otter offense has been strutting its stuff through the first third of the season to the tune of a 77.0 scoring average. That mark would rank No. 5 on the CSUMB all–time list.

A LITTLE SOMETHING IN RESERVE: The Otter bench more than held its own in the Dec. 15 win over Academy of Art, outscoring the Urban Knight reserves 45–6. In fact, the Otter reserves have outscored their counterparts in 9 of 10 games this season (Oklahoma Panhandle edged the Otters 37–34 in that department on Nov. 17). The CSUMB bench has outscored its opposing bench by 401–231, an average of 17.1 points per game.

THE WARD GIVETH… Brandon Ward's three assists in the Dec. 15 win over Academy of Art give him 218 career assists, good for No. 2 in the CSUMB record book. D'Shon Cannon owns the top spot with 371 assists from 2006–08.

…AND THE WARD TAKETH AWAY: Brandon Ward continues his quest for the CSUMB career steals record, entering the Cal State East Bay game in the No. 5 spot with 77 steals. Next up in fourth place is Steve Monreal with 79 steals. Joe Mitchell holds the record with 91 steals.

WORKING OVERTIME: One area where the Otters have excelled in the Rob Bishop Era is in overtime. CSUMB was 2–0 in overtime during the 2011–12 season and 6–1 overall when playing bonus basketball under Bishop.

LARGE MARGINS, HOME EDITION: The season–opening 104–52 win over Pacifica University set a CSUMB record for largest margin of victory (52 points) in an Otter home win. Last night, CSUMB's 78–58 win over Colorado Christian was the largest margin of victory in a road game during the Road Bishop era at CSUMB. The previous record was 19 points in an 83–64 win at Cal State East Bay on Feb. 3, 2011.

LARGE MARGINS, ROAD EDITION: Nov. 16th's 78–58 win over Colorado Christian was the largest margin of victory (20 points) in a road game in the Rob Bishop era of Otter basketball.

NOW THAT'S SMARTS: After leading the conference with three members of the CCAA All–Academic team in 2011, the Otter men's basketball team built on that success by placing four players on that team in 2012: James Albert, Geoff McIntosh, Brandon Ward and Troy Watkins. CSUMB's seven CCAA All–Academic team members over the last two seasons are tops among the 12 conference schools. Ward, in fact, is a three–year member of the CCAA All–Academic team.

FERTIG NAMED TO ALL–TOURNAMENT TEAM: Freshman guard Alex Fertig (Fresno/Buchanan HS) picked up the first piece of hardware for the Otters this season, earning All–Tournament recognition at the GCI Alaska Invitational. He averaged 18.7 points per game over the weekend, including CSUMB's first 20–point games of the season with 24 vs. Colorado Christian and 21 vs. Oklahoma Panhandle State.

TAKE THEM, THEY'RE FREE: The Otters finished the 2011–12 campaign with an aggregate 71.3 percentage effort from the free–throw line. That mark ranked No. 5 in CSUMB record book and marked the sixth consecutive season the Otters shot at least 71 percent from the charity stripe.

WELCOME BACK: The Otters return all five starters from the 2011–12 roster. Altogether, CSUMB welcomes back 80.1 percent of its scoring and 71.6 percent of its rebounding from last season.

SIT THIS ONE OUT: Freshman Tim Darkwa and junior Rafael Morelos will practice with the team but are expected to redshirt the 2012–13 season.