ARCATA, Calif. – Done in by a first half that saw them down by as many as 26, the Humboldt State's men's basketball team's comeback attempt fell short against Cal State San Bernardino in Lumberjack Arena on Saturday night, by a 90-79 final.

Romario Wilson led the home team with a sterling effort off the bench, and finished with 24 points including a perfect 13-for-13 from the free throw line. Kameron Curl added 12 points, while Ashton Pomrehn and Davasyia Hagger both had 10.

HSU drops to 6-12 overall and 3-9 in the CCAA. San Bernardino improved to 7-9, 5-7 in conference.

"Cal State San Bernardino did a nice job coming out early and defending us aggressively," said Lumberjack Head Coach Steve Kinder. "They took us out of our rhythm and took away any window of opportunity to get good looks by our better scorers. Out of halftime I thought our guys responded extremely well. They showed some grit, they showed some guts, they showed some toughness and made two really good pushes in the second half. We're proud of our Lumberjacks, but it just wasn't enough for the victory."

The Jacks fell behind 21-5 at the 13:06 mark of the first half before responding with a 6-2 run. But the Coyotes kept coming, establishing a 47-21 lead with 2:58 left in the half and leading 49-31 at the break.

In the second, HSU continued its run to close the gap to 49-39, but saw the Coyotes expand their lead to 65-41 with 12:39 to go. Another Jack push cut the deficit to 71-61 at 6:06, but the Coyotes maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.  

HSU did excellent work at the charity stripe, knocking down 30-of-33 from the line as a team, but allowed the Coyotes to shoot 51.7 percent from the field. Both benches were solid, with the Jacks' contributing 38 points and the Coyotes' 32.

Despite its current record, HSU has been able to compete with any adversary, as the team had recently won three of four and played a talented Cal State Pomona squad tight on Thursday night, falling 73-70. Asked about how that might give the Jacks some positive momentum heading into a potential season-ending conference tournament, Wilson said, "We just talk in the locker room about how we have to keep working hard every day to get better, and we can hang with the best of them. It shows that we have the talent and the skill-sets to win big-time games. It's all on us to go get it. We have 10 games left, and we've got to finish off strong so we can make a push to get into this tournament."

The Jacks travel to face rival Chico State next Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.