The Stanislaus Warriors defeated the UC San Diego Tritons  by the final score of  61-46 at the Stockton Arena on Thursday night.
The game started off slow as the Warriors (18-10)  went to the locker room  at half time  down by one point, 25-24. A slow offense combined with trouble grabbing rebounds to start the game was showing early signs of defeat.
The second half started off with a bang as Wes Bartole  hit a three early on followed by back-to-back layups by big man Rob Walters.   The key stat that helped  the Warriors was points in the paint as they outscored the Tritons  (16-11),  28-16.  Walters  was the top scorer for the Warriors with 13 points and was crashing the boards all night with 11 rebounds  followed  by Tyler Barber with 11 points and Bartole who had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
The court was dominated by seniors all night as Bartole, Walters and Barber were joined by Read, Tremelling and Mataele. The seniors combined for 53 of the 61 points that Stanislaus scored. The other eight came from freshman Christian Bayne.
With the win, the Warriors will be facing the team that ended their run into the NCAA Division II tournament last year. They will tip off against Chico State tomorrow night at 5:35 p.m. at the Stockton Arena.