ARCATA, Calif. – In a game with 20 lead changes Thursday night at Lumberjack Arena against Cal State East Bay, the Humboldt State men's basketball team returned to its winning ways with a 82-75 overtime victory.

"These fans in Lumberjack Arena tonight definitely got their money's worth," said HSU coach Steve Kinder. "That's always a staple of what we try to do here at Humboldt State whether they're showing up to a game or a basketball camp or anything in between. And they definitely saw a lot of exciting basketball tonight."

The game was a tightly contested affair throughout, with neither team attaining a double-digit lead until the Jacks were able to stretch it out to 10 points with an 80-70 lead coming courtesy of a Kameron Curl free-throw with 39 seconds left in the overtime session.

Justin Everett paced the Lumberjacks with a career-high 21 points before fouling out with 2:05 left in OT. Curl and Tyras Rattler Jr. both had 16 points while Davasyia Hagger had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Jack Kaub had eight points and 10 boards.

"Justin is doing a great job posting up deep in the paint and getting himself closer to the basket," said Kinder. "His eyes are finding the rim on his rotation with his shoulders and he's a load. He's a big kid, and he's making a statement that he's coming on as a junior."

Kinder referred to Kaub as "inspirational" and said that he's certainly a good player to have in the locker room.

The Jacks managed to limit themselves to 10 turnovers while turning the Pioneers over 17 times. HSU improved to 7-15 overall, 4-12 CCAA conference, while the Pioneers fell to 8-15, 4-13 CCAA.

HSU jumped on the visitors early 13-6 on an Everett jumper before East Bay rallied to pull ahead 19-18 at the 6:39 mark of the first half. HSU would take a 32-30 lead into the break.

The second half was also nip-and-tuck for the most part, as the teams jockeyed for position, East Bay taking a 47-42 lead with 10:03 left before the Jacks sustained a 6-0 run, the longest run by any team pre-overtime. It was a free-throw by Everett with 23 seconds left that enabled HSU to creep into the overtime session.

Kinder was very optimistic that his team could continue its success on the back end of their home swing Saturday night against Monterey Bay with a 7:30 tip time.

Kinder said, "The result of winning is great, and it's what we need. It's the process of the couple hard weeks of practice that we've had. We certainly haven't shied away from being very physical in practice and going back to fundamentals, back to basics, and I think it's paid off with their toughness and their mentality to be able to sustain a 40-minute period."