The Bear Cubs (10-6, 2-2) faced off against the Beavers (7-9, 1-4) of American River College in a pivotal Big 8 Conference matchup at Haehl Pavillion. Forward, Stephen Ransom got the Bear Cubs going early by converting two of the team's first three field goals. Forward, Ezekiel Stallworth heated up from distance by hitting two threes as the Bear Cubs attempted to pull away from the American River. The Beavers of American River were consistently knocking down threes and hanging with the Bear Cubs, nearing the halfway mark in the first half. The Bear Cubs again took control of the game as Guard, Zeke Grund made a three-point shot, that gave Santa Rosa a 25-18 advantage with 9:58 to go in the half. Both teams then struggled from the field for multiple minutes until a Santa Rosa timeout at the 3:34 mark. While the Beavers' once red-hot outside shooting numbers continued to dissipate Santa Rosa Guard, Chris Holley took over the game and ended the half as the leading scorer for the Bear Cubs with 12 points. At halftime, the score was SR-44 AR-33.

Ransom (who scored double figures) and Holley quickly extended the lead to 13 with 18 minutes remaining. A pair of threes from Forward, Dave Baraka, with another from Stallworth (the third Bear Cub with double-digit points), increased the lead to 66-42. Sensing that the game was getting out of hand, the Beavers deployed a full-court press. The press halted the Bear Cub offense momentarily, but it proved to be ineffective as the lead never fell under 20 points for the remainder of the game. After the halfway point in the second half Grund and Guard, Yatyn Anderson became the fourth and fifth Santa Rosa player to score in double figure. In the concluding minutes, Baraka (the team's sixth double-digit scorer) caught fire again by draining 3 three-point shots, finishing with a career-high 17 points. The Bear Cubs won 94-66 with an offensive surge and tough defensive. The splits for the offensive outburst by Santa Rosa were (35-69) 50.7% from the field, (17-39) 45.9% from three-point range, and (7-10) 70% from the free throw line. Chris Holley and Ezekiel Stallworth led all Santa Rosa scorers with 19 points, followed by Dave Baraka with 17 points, Zeke Grund and Yatyn Anderson added 11 points each, and Stephen Ransom scored 10 points. 

After improving to 11-6 (3-2), Santa Rosa looks to capitalize on the team's positive momentum in the next Big 8 Conference game when Santa Rosa hosts Sierra College on Tuesday, Jan. 16th at 7:30 pm.

(PC: Christian Vieyra, Oak Leaf)